ILL 


XI  B  R.AR.Y1 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 


NOIS  HISTORICAL 


i 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA 


-     •-    V 


THE 


EARLY   PIONEERS 


PIONEER    EVENTS 


OF     THE      STATE      OF      ILLINOIS 


INCLUDING  PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  WRITER; 

OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,   ANDREW  JACKSON,   AND 

PETER  CARTWRIGHT,  TOGETHER  WITH 

A   BRIEF  AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
OF   THE   WRITER. 


BY   HARVEY  LEE   ROSS 


CHICAGO 

EASTMAN     BKOTHEKS 
1899 


DEDICATION. 


To  the  few  surviving  companions  and  friends  of  the 
times  and  scenes  of  which  I  have  written,  and  who  shared 
with  me  the  trials  and  triumphs  of  those  long  past  pioneer 
years,  this  book  is  respectfully  dedicated. 

HARVEY  L.  Ross. 


I  135156 


PREFACE. 

The  author  of  this  book  being  now  a  citizen  of  the  City 
of  Oakland,  State  of  California,  and  in  the  eighty-first 
year  of  his  age,  having  been  an  early  pioneer  of  the  State 
of  Illinois,  having  settled  there  with  his  parents  in  tlit; 
year  1820,  and  having  lived  to  witness  the  rise  and  progress 
and  the  development  of  that  great  State  from  its  infancy, 
and  having  been  familiar  with  many  circumstances  and 
events  connected  with  the  early  history  of  that  State,  and 
having  been  well  acquainted  with  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Peter  Cartwright  from  theirfirst  coming  into  the  State  up  to 
the  time  of  their  respective  deaths,  and  having  also  had  the 
privilege  and  the  opportunity  of  learning  much  about  the 
early  life  and  adventures  of  Andrew  Jackson,  was  solicited 
by  friends  who  had  been  informed  of  these  facts  to  write 
for  publication-  what  he  knew  concerning  pioneer  times  and 
those  illustrious  men. 

In  compliance  to  such  requests  he  wrote  a  number  of 
articles  which  were  published  in  the  Fulton  Democrat  at 
Lewistown,  Fulton  County,  Illinois,  and  which  were  copied 
into  other  newspapers,  and  since  such  publication  he  has 
been  further  solicited  by  many  persons  to  have  those  ar- 
ticles compiled  and  published  in  book  form,  and  they  now 
here  appear  substantially  as  they  were  copied  from  those 
papers. 

HARVEY  LEE  Ross. 
,  CALIFORNIA,  1898. 


.  —  A  few  months  ago,  while  on  a  business  trip  to 
San  Francisco,  California,  I  visited  my  uncle  at  his  home 


VI  PREFACE. 

near  by  Oakland,  arid  was  there  shown  many  of  the  com- 
munications here  appearing.  The  writer  of  this  memo- 
randum note  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  future  value 
of  these  writings  as  representing  an  accurate  and  faithful 
narration  of  events  of  the  early  days  of  the  now  great  State 
of  Illinois,,  and  as  being  replete  with  interesting  remem- 
brances and  unrecorded  sayings  and  doings  of  three  now 
historical  characters. 

I  urged  upon  my  uncle  the  privilege  and  duty  even  that 
rested  with  and  upon  him,  to  put  his  newspaper  and  fugi- 
tive writings  into  final  form  for  book  publication,  so  that 
they  could  pass  into  the  permanent  literature  of  the  State 
and  not  perish.  It  Avas  easily  seen  that  the  terse  and  oft- 
times  quaint  statements  of  facts  and  events  had  a  peculiar 
attractiveness  of  expression  of  their  own,  and  the  honesty 
and  candor  that  permeate  every  line  of  his  writings  doubly 
assure  a  recognition  of  value. 

I  found  my  uncle,  although  past  the  four-score  years  of 
the  psalmist,  hale  in  body,  bright  and  cheerful,  and  in  as 
full  possession  of  his  mental  strength  and  vigor  as  in  the 
noontime  of  his  life.  Indeed,  you  could  say  of  him  as  Sir 
Walter  Scott  has  so  beautifully  spoken  of  one  of  his  char- 
acters of  fiction,  "  that  the  snows  of  Winter  have  fallen 
upon,  but  chilled  him  not."  I  found  to  my  gratification 
that  my  uncle  had  also  thought  of  preserving  his  writings 
in  book  form,  at  least  for  his  descendants  and  friends,  and 
he  then  gave  me  permission  immediately  so  to  do.  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  adding  a  reproduction  of  his  portrait 
as  a  frontispiece,  taken  in  the  80th  year  of  his  age. 

CHARLES  K.  OFFIELD. 

379  Ashland  Boulevard,  Chicago,  Illinois. 
December,  1898. 


CONTENTS. 


PIONEER    TIMES. 

CHAPTER  1 1-5 

Pioneer  journey  from  New  York  to  Illinois.- — The  pirogue 
of  the  early  settler. — Dr.  Davison,  the  "  Hermit,"  the  first 
settler. 

CHAPTER  II 6-9 

The  first  murder  among  early  pioneers. — The  first  lawyers. — 
Some  errors  in  Chapman's  History  of  Fulton  County. 

CHAPTER  III 9-13 

Tragical  death  of  Peter  White.— The  Ross  ferry.— A  fight 
between  pioneers  and  Indians. 

CHAPTER  IV H~Z7 

The  ending  of  the  Indian  fight. — My  boyhood  ghost  for  an 
Indian  scare. — My  father's  trade  with  the  Indians. —  Early 
religious  customs  of  the  Indians. — A  war  dance. 

CHAPTER  V 18-21 

An  early  pioneer  dance. — Major  Newton  Walker  and  his 
fiddle. — A  pioneer  wagon  ride. 

CHAPTER  VI -21-25 

The  first  log  houses,  their  construction. — Old-fashioned  fire- 
place; the  latch-string;  the  hominy  mortar;  the  reap-hook 
and  flail. — The  first  horse-mill  of  the  early  settler. — "  Squaw 
corn." — My  mother's  rescue  of  her  kettle  from  the  Indians, 
with  her  fire-shovel. 

CHAPTER  VII 26-30 

The  Nimans. — First  blacksmith  shop  opened  by  Jacob  Ni- 
man. — Dr.  Charles  Newton,  a  celebrated  pioneer  physician. — 
Another  error  in  Chapman's  History. 

CHAPTER  VIII 30-34 

Pike  County  organized. —  First  election  in  Fulton  County  held 
at  my  father's  house. — My  father's  vote  the  first  cast  in  Fulton 
County. — John  L.  Bogardus,  one  of  Peoria's  early  settlers. — 
First  marriages  in  Fulton  County. — My  sister  ^Lucinda  the 
first  white  child  born  in  this  territory. 

CHAPTER  IX r 35-38 

The  Wentworths  and  early  Chicago. — The  Kingstons. — 
Brother  Lewis'  visit  to  Chicago. 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X 38-41 

The  Havana  Hotel;  its  construction. — Court  held  in  bar-room 
of  my  hotel,  where  Abraham  Lincoln  attended. — Block- 
houses built. 

CHAPTER   XI 4J-45 

Arrival  of  Judge  Phelps  and  William  Proctor. — Their  kind- 
ness to  the  Indians. — Judge  Phelps'  sportsmanship. 

CHAPTER   XII 45-5° 

How  the  fourteen  pigeons  were  killed  with  a  rifle-ball  at  one 
shot. — The  first  pioneer  stores. — Method  of  shipping  cargo  to 
St.  Louis. — The  first  penitentiary  in  the  state. — Christian  char- 
acter and  benevolent  deeds  of  Myron  Phelps  and  William 
Proctor. 

CHAPTER   XIII 5°-55 

The  big  snow  of  1830-31  and  terrible  suffering  therefrom. — 
Description  of  Indian  wigwam. — Chief  Raccoon  and  my 
"good  luck." 

CHAPTER  XIV 55-58 

Meeting  of  brother  Lewis  and  Chief  Raccoon  in  Indian  Res- 
ervation.— Indian  traits. — Tragedy  in  Dean's  Settlement. 

CHAPTER  XV 58-62 

Captain  John  and  his  squaws. — The  Indians'  Paradise. — In- 
dian traffic  in  ginseng  and  wild  potatoes,  and  their  extermina- 
tion by  wild  hogs. 

CHAPTER  XVI 62-66 

Appearance  of  the  country  when  early  settlers  arrived. — Ex- 
tensive and  beautiful  prairies. — My  experience  in  hauling 
hay. — Discovery  of  coal  by  Mr.  Gardiner. — First  banking 
establishment  in  Fulton  County. 

CHAPTER  XVII 66-70 

John  Coleman,  a  remarkable  pioneer. — Little  Pike's  first  ride. 

CHAPTER  XVIII 7i~74 

The  Westerfield  Indian  scare. — Memorable  cyclone  of  1835. — 
Uprising  of  Canton's  women  against  the  saloons  of  that  vil- 
lage. 

CHAPTER  XIX 75-78 

Pioneer  hangings. — Early  lawyers. 

CHAPTER  XX 78-81 

Suicide  of  Edward  Stapleford  and  its  awful  consequence. 

CHAPTER  XXI 81-85 

The  pioneer  doctor  and  his  methods  of  treatment. — The  In- 
dian doctor. — How  he  cured  me. 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER  XXII 85-88 

Pioneer  schools. — First  steel  pens. — How  some  young  ladies 
were  punished  for  disobeying  rules. — First  schoolhouse  and 
its  construction. 

CHAPTER  XXIII 89-92 

Letter  from  Mr.  John  W.  Proctor. — My  reply  thereto. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

CHAPTER  1 93-95 

Conditions  under  which  I  first  became  acquainted  with  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

CHAPTER  II 95  -98 

Lincoln  the  grocery  clerk. — How  he  qualified  himself  for  sur- 
veyor. 

CHAPTER  III 98-101 

Some  errors  in  Herndon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln." — Anne  Rut- 
ledge,  Lincoln's  first  sweetheart,  and  her  untimely  death. 

CHAPTER   IV 102-109 

Lincoln's  second  sweetheart,  Mary  Owens. — His  letter  in  re- 
gard to  the  breaking  of  the  engagement. — First  circus  of 
pioneer  days. 

CHAPTER   V 1 10-1 1 3 

Lincoln's  trip  on  a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans. — His  visit  to  a 
slave  market,  and  his  avowed  hatred  and  intention  regarding 
the  institution  of  slavery. 

CHAPTER  VI 113-116 

The  first  step  to  the  White  House. — The  "  shirt-sleeve  court  in 
the  corn  field." — Mr.  Lincoln's  refusal  of  a  well-earned  fee. 

CHAPTER  VII 116-120 

How  Lincoln  first  earned  the  sobriquet  of  "  Honest  Abe."— 
His  speech  wins  the  debate. — Circumstances  of  his  speech  in 
1858  when  running  for  senator. 

CHAPTER  VIII 120-122 

Some  facts  in  relation  to  Lincoln's  storekeeping. — Error  in 
Herndon's  biography. — Mr.  Lincoln  a  judge  in  horse-races. 

CHAPTER   IX 123-1 27 

Some  incidents  of  W.  H.  Herndon's  early  life. — His  further 
misstatements  in  regard  to  Lincoln. 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   X 127-130 

True  story  of  the  Lincoln-Shields  duel. 

CHAPTER  XI 130-133 

Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  belief. 

CHAPTER   XII 134-136 

My  visit  to  the  grave  of  the  martyred  president. 


ANDREW  JACKSON. 

CHAPTER  1 137-152 

The  Churchwell  and  Kirkpatrick  families'  personal  acquaint- 
anceship with  the  old  hero  and  statesman. — History  of  the 
tragedy  in  which  Andrew  Jackson  participated. — Our  visit  to 
him  at  the  Hermitage. — Story  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  death. — A 
little  anecdote  about  Alexander  Kirkpatrick. 

CHAPTER  II . .  1 52-1 66 

Brief  history  of  Presidential  election  of  1828. — Some  further 
incidents  concerning  Jackson. — Our  delightful  visit  to  the 
South. — How  my  son  Frank  finally  came  to  partake  of  south- 
ern hospitality  at  the  hands  of  "  Aunt  Moody." — Death  of 
Andrew  Jackson  shortly  after  our  return  from  the  South. 

CHAPTER  III 166-1 79 

Circumstances  surrounding  Andrew  Jackson's  marriage. — 
My  visit  to  the  noted  battle  grounds  at  New  Orleans. — Story 
of  Jackson's  great  victory. — Some  high  offices  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed. — A  brief  review  of  his  childhood. 


PETER  CARTWRIGHT. 

CHAPTER  1 180-183 

Mr.  Cartwright's  successful  efforts  to  defeat  slavery. — His 
removal  to  Illinois  in  1824. 

CHAPTER  II 184-186 

Mr.  Cartwright  as  a  great  preacher  and  a  great  organizer. — 
The  Jacksonville  Ordinance  and  how  Mr.  Cartwright  assisted 
in  its  enforcement. 

CHAPTER  III 187-192 

The  name  of  Peter  Cartwright  familiar  throughout  the  state. 
— His  efforts  to  drive  out  the  Mormons. — Grand  ovation 
tendered  him  in  1869. — His  labors  at  eighty-six  years  of  age. 
— An  incident  of  his  last  missionary  tour. 


CONTENTS.  XI 


A  UTOBIOGRAPHY. 

MY  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  BRIEFLY  SKETCHED 193-199 

My  ancestors,  the  Ross  and  Lee  families. — Their  descendants 
and  some  of  their  deeds. — The  journey  of  my  family  from 
New  York  to  Illinois. — Some  of  my  early  personal  adven- 
tures.— My  marriage  to  Jane  R.  Kirkpatrick,  January  ist, 
1840. — My  personal  work  in  the  early  development  of  the 
country.-— The  offices  held  and  my  work  as  a  delegate  to  the 
National  Prohibition  convention  in  the  year  1884.— The  sixty 
years  of  my  membership  in  the  Presbyterian  church. 


pioneer  {Ti 


LIFE    IN    FULTON    COUNTY    SEVENTY    TO    EIGHTY 
YEARS   AGO.* 


CHAPTER  I. 

PIONEER  JOURNEY  FROM  NEW  YORK  TO  ILLINOIS. THE 

PIROGUE   OF   THE   EARLY   SETTLER. DR.  DAVISON,  THE 

"HERMIT,"  THE  FIRST  SETTLER. 

OAKLAND,  CAL.,  May  18,  1897. 
MR.  W.  T.  DAVIDSON: 

I  received  your  letter  asking  me  to  write  for  The  Fulton 
Democrat  a  series  of  sketches  on  the  early  settlement  of 
Fulton  county.  I  have  received  similar  requests  from 
some  of  my  relatives  and  old  friends.  There  are  no  peo- 
ple in  the  wide  world  that  I  have  as  great  a  regard  for  as 
the  people  of  Illinois,  and  no  people  for  whom  I  feel  the 
love  and  affection  that  goes  from  my  heart  to  the  pioneer 
of  Fulton  county.  It  was  there  that  I  spent  the  greater 
part  of  my  boyhood  and  manhood ;  it  was  there  where  five 
of  my  children  was  born  and  raised,  and  where  many  of 
my  relatives  now  live.  There  is  such  a  warm  place  in  my 
heart  for  the  old  settlers  of  Fulton  county  that  it  will  be 
a  pleasure  for  me  to  write  these  sketches.  I  hope  they 
will  add  something  to  their  knowledge  and  pleasure. 

But  in  going  into  the  early  history  of  the  county  I  will 
be  compelled  to  allude  very  often  to  some  of  my  relatives 
who  were  prominent  as  early  settlers. 

So  I  will  commence  with  my  father,  Ossian  M.  Ross, 

*  Fulton  County  then  comprising  nearly  the  entire  northern  half  of 
Illinois;  now  divided  into  fifty  counties. 


2  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

who  with  my  mother,  my  brother  Lewis,  my  sister  Har- 
riet and  myself  moved  from  Seneca  county,  New  York, 
and  settled  on  the  quarter  section  of  land  just  north  of  the 
present  city  of  Lewistown  in  April,  1821. 

My  father  was  an  officer  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  drew  a 
half  section  of  land;  he  settled  upon  one  of  the  quarters, 
and  on  the  other  quarter  he  laid  out  the  present  city  of 
Lewistown. 

The  family  left  tfew  York  in  the  fall  of  1819  and  went 
to  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  where  he  bought  a  small  keel  boat  on 
which  he  loaded  his  household  goods  and  other  properties, 
and  went  down  the  Ohio  river  to  its  conjunction  with  the 
Mississippi  river  where  Cairo  now  stands.  Here  the  boat 
was  frozen  up  in  the  ice,  and  we  remained  prisoners  there 
until  the  next  spring.  Then  we  went  up  the  Mississippi 
river  to  where  the  city  of  Alton  now  stands.  There  we 
left  the  boat  and  went  back  into  the  country  about  ten 
miles,  near  the  town  of  Edwardsville,  where  my  father 
rented  a  farm.  He  bought  some  horses,  cows  and  other 
stock,  and  during  the  summer  of  1821  raised  a  good  crop. 
After  the  crops  had  been  secured  we  went  back  to  Alton 
where  the  keel  boat  had  been  left  in  charge  of  the  ferry- 
man, and  loaded  upon  the  boat  all  our  household  goods 
and  family,  and  started  up  the  river  to  our  future  home. 
Our  hired  men  drove  the  wagon  and  stock  across  the 
country.  Before  we  started  into  the  wilderness  of  Ful- 
ton countymy  father  went  to  St.  Louis  and  laid  in  a  supply 
of  such  articles  as  he  thought  we  would  need  in  our  wilder- 
ness home.  Among  the  other  things  was  a  good  supply 
of  flour  and  salt,  guns  and  ammunition.  He  also  bought 
a  surveyor's  compass  and  chain.  He  went  to  the  sur- 
veyor general's  office  in  St.  Louis  and  got  a  sectional  map 
of  the  Military  Tract,  which  embraced  all  the  land  lying 
between  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers  and  extended 
as  far  north  as  to  include  Bureau  and  Henry  counties. 
He  also  got  from  the  surveyor's  office  a  copy  of  the  field 
notes  of  the  survey  of  the  Military  Tract  that  was  made 
about  three  years  before.  These  field  notes  were  of  very 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  O 

great  importance  to  him  and  to  many  other  early  settlers 
in  the  county,  as  they  enabled  them. to  locate  their  lands 
by  means  of  well  established  township  and  section  corners, 
all  clearly  described  in  these  field  notes.  Without  them 
it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  people  to  have  ac- 
curately located  their  land. 

The  little  keel  boat  that  we  came  up  the  river  in  was 
propelled  by  a  sail  when  the  wind  was  fair,  and  at  other 
times  by  oars  and  poles.  We  were  two  weeks  coming 
from  Alton  to  the  mouth  of  Spoon  river  at  Havana,  and 
the  team  and  stock  that  were  driven  across  the  country  ar- 
rived a  few  days  later.  We  ran  the  boat  up  Spoon  river 
to  where  John  Eveland  was  living.  He  had  settled  there 
a  year  before. 

My  father  on  examining  his  map  found  that  his  land 
was  about  six  miles  north  of  Mr.  Eveland' s  place.  He 
took  some  of  his  men,  and  with  his  compass,  chain  and 
field  notes  he  had  no  trouble  in  locating  his  land.  The 
family  staid  on  the  boat  until  the  team  and  stock  arrived, 
and  then  we  all  moved  onto  our  land.  Father  selected 
the  quarter  section  north  of  Lewistown  for  our  home,  and 
built  a  log  house  on  the  east  side  of  a  little  creek  that  ran 
through  the  land  and  near  to  a  fine,  large  spring  of  water. 
The  location  was  some  sixty  rods  northeast  from  Major 
Walker's  present  residence.  We  lived  there  four  years, 
and  then  built  another  log  house  where  Major  Walker  now 
lives.  Wre  staid  there  until  the  fall  of  1828,  and  then, 
moved  to  Havana.  Three  years  after  my  father  sold  the 
farm  to  Mahlon  Winans,  my  mother's  brother,  for  $1000. 

The  only  white  inhabitant  in  that  part  of  the  country 
at  that  time  was  John  Eveland,  who  lived  on  the  north 
side  of  Spoon  river  about  a  mile  above  where  Waterford 
now  stands,  and  Dr.  W.  T.  Davison,  who  lived  on  the  south 
side  of  the  river  a  little  higher  up.  Mr.  Eveland  had  a 
large  family  of  nine  or  ten  children,  part  of  them  grown. 
They  had  some  twenty  acres  in  cultivation,  and  were  en- 
gaged in  raising  stock.  They  had  come  into  this  country 
from  Calhoun  county,  making  the  trip  up  the  Illinois  and 


4  EABLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

Spoon  rivers,  partly  by  land  and  partly  by  water.  Be- 
fore leaving  Calhoun  county  they  constructed  a  large 
pirogue  (a  large  canoe).  It  was  hewed  out  of  a  large  cot- 
tonwood  tree.  The  length  of  the  boat  was  forty  feet,  and 
was  about  four  feet  wide.  It  was  run  by  sail  and  also  by 
oars.  On  this  craft  they  shipped  their  hogs  and  part  of 
their  goods.  These  were  the  first  hogs  that  were  ever 
brought  to  Fulton  county  and  were  all  of  a  red  color. 

This  pirogue  is  entitled  to  more  particular  attention, 
because  it  was  put  to  many  uses  of  convenience  and  util- 
ity among  the  early  settlers.  It  was  the  first  craft  used 
to  carry  people  across  the  Illinois  river  at  the  mouth  of 
Spoon  river,  and  it  was  the  craft  that  the  Phelpses  used 
in  shipping  their  first  stock  of  goods  from  St.  Louis  to 
Lewistown,  and  this  was  the  first  stock  of  goods  ever 
brought  to  Fulton  county.  This  pirogue  was  also  put  in 
use  by  the  early  settlers  to  run  down  Spoon  river  to  the 
Illinois  river,  and  thence  down  the  Illinois  river  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Sangamon  river,  and  thence  up  the  Sanga- 
mon  to  Sangamontown,  where  there  was  a  water-mill  to 
which  our  people  took  their  grain  to  be  ground  into  bread- 
stuff. A  great  skill  had  been  used  in  digging  out  and 
constructing  this  pirogue.  For  years  it  took  the  place  of 
the  magnificent  steamboat  and  railway  trains  that  later 
generations  employed. 

John  Eveland  built  a  mill  run  by  horse  power  where  he 
settled  on  Spoon  river  which  was  the  first  mill  built  and 
operated  in  the  county  of  Fulton.  Some  four  or  five  years 
after  he  came  to  the  county  he  moved  and  settled  five  miles 
southeast  of  Canton,  and  there  built  another  horse  mill.  ' 

Dr.  Davison,  who  had  settled  on  the  south  side  of  Spoon 
river  a  little  west  of  the  Eveland  place,  lived  alone  and  was 
called  "The  Hermit."  I  could  never  learn  where  he  came 
from  nor  when  he  settled  in  Fulton  county.  He  had  a 
good,  comfortable  cabin  and  a  bearing  peach  orchard, 
which  showed  he  had  lived  there  for  several  years.  He 
was  doubtless  the  first  settler  in  this  part  of  Illinois. 

The  next  settlers  that  settled  in  that  country   were  two 


EARLY    PIONEEKS    AND    EVENTS.  5 

brothers  named  Reuben  and  Roswell  Fenner.  They  were 
both  single  men,  and  had  come  from  Calhoun  county 
upon  the  Illinois  river  in  canoes  and  settled  on  the  south 
side  of  Spoon  river  about  two  miles  above  Waterford. 
About  a  year  after  they  settled  there,  Reuben,  the  oldest, 
was  married  to  a  Miss  Rowley,  whose  father  was  a  new- 
comer there.  These  two  Fenners  were  the  first  persons 
ever  incarcerated  in  the  Lewistown  jail,  and  it  was  for 
the  crime  of  whipping  to  death  of  Reuben's  wife,  the  par- 
ticulars of  which  I  will  give  in  my  next  communication. 

In  1822  a  great  many  people  began  to  move  into  Fulton 
county,  but  most  of  them  came  over  from  Sangamon 
county.  They  had  come  from  eastern  and  southern  states 
with  the  intention  of  settling  in  the  Military  Tract,  but 
the  country  was  full  of  Indians — indeed  they  could  be 
counted  by  the  thousands.  The  Sangamon  river  was  about 
the  dividing  line  between  the  white  settlers  and  the  In- 
dians; so  these  men  were  afraid  to  venture  over.  But 
after  Mr.  Eveland  and  my  father  and  a  few  other  families 
had  lived  among  the  Indians  a  year  or  two  and  none  of 
them  had  been  butchered  or  scalped  the  people  began  to 
come  to  the  county  in  great  droves.  The  first  settlements 
were  made  about  Lewistown  and  Waterford. 

In  my  next  letter  I  will  give  the  names  of  some  of  the 
other  pioneers  and  will  also  tell  what  the  Fenner  boys 
whipped  Mrs.  Reuben  Fenner  to  death  for,  and  how  they 
broke  jail  and  got  away,  and  of  the  excitement  that  it 
caused  throughout  the  county. 


EARLY    PIONEEES    AND    EVENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   FIRST   MURDER  AMONG  EARLY  PIONEERS. THE   FIRST 

LAWYERS. SOME     ERRORS    IN    CHAPMAN'S     HISTORY    OF 

FULTON  COUNTY. 

There  had  been  no  circumstance  ever  occurred  before  in 
Fulton  county  that  caused  so  much  excitement  and  indig- 
nation as  the  murder  of  Mrs.  Reuben  Tenner  by  her  hus- 
band and  his  brother.  It  was  the  first  murder  that  took 
place  in  the  county  after  the  white  people  had  settled  it, 
and  the  Tenners  were  the  first  prisoners  that  ever  occupied- 
the  new  log  jail. 

Reuben  and  Roswell  Tenner  were  both  about  six  feet 
two  inches  tall,  and  were  of  such  dark  complexion  as  to 
suggest  that  they  were  part  Indian.  It  was  said  by  peo- 
ple in  Calhoun  county,  where  they  came  from,  that  there 
was  Indian  blood  in  them.  They  settled  on  the  south  side 
of  Spoon  river  near  the  site  of  the  celebrated  Duncan 
Mills,  afterwards  erected  four  miles  southwest  of  Lewis- 
town.  They  built  a  log  house  and  lived  together  alone. 
After  they  had  lived  there  some  eighteen  months  a  man 
named  Rowley  came  into  the  country  and  settled  about  a 
mile  from  the  Tenners.  The  Rowleys  had  a  daughter 
about  twenty-two  years  old  and  a  son  aged  ten  or  twelve. 
They  had  only  lived  there  a  few  months  when  Reuben 
Tenner  and  Miss  Rowley  were  married.  He  took  her  to 
their  joint  cabin.  It  turned  out  that  Reuben  was  willing 
that  his  brother  Roswell  should  share  equally  with  him 
in  his  wife's  affections,  and  that  she  rebelled  with  shame 
and  indignation.  Then  the  trouble  commenced.  She 
fought  for  her  honor  as  any  noble  woman  would  do,  but 
the  poor  girl  was  at  the  mercy  of  two  heartless  giants. 

Her  mother  heard  that  she  was  sick  in  bed  and  went  to 
see  her,  and  the  girl  told  her  mother  how  both  the  brothers 
had  whipped  her  and  how  cruelly  they  had  treated  her. 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  < 

The  young  wife  continued  to  grow  worse,  and  in  a  few 
days  died.  When  the  word  came  to  Lewistown  of  her 
death  a  great  many  of  the  people,  both  men  and  women, 
went  down  to  the  Fenner  place  to  attend  the  funeral. 
When  the  people  assembled  they  discovered  that  the  Fen- 
ners  had  made  a  rough  box  for  a  coffin  and  had  put  her  in 
it  ready  for  burial.  But  the  men  opened  the  box  and  took 
the  body  out  and  examined  it.  They  found  many  black 
stripes  on  her  limbs  and  bruises  on  her  body,  and  they  de- 
cided that  she  had  come  to  her  death  from  cruel  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  Fenners.  The  Fenner s  were  arrested 
and  taken  to  the  Lewistown  jail.  They  had  been  confined 
for  a  couple  of  months  waiting  for  the  circuit  court  to  con- 
vene, when  one  night  some  of  their  friends  came  and  as- 
sisted them  to  escape.  The  jail  was  built  of  hewed  logs 
twelve  inches  square,  and  a  crowbar  had  been  used  to  pry 
out  the  end  of  one  of  the  logs  so  that  they  could  crawl  out. 
The  next  morning  an  officer  went  in  pursuit  of  them,  but 
they  had  gone  to  their  cabin  and  loaded  their  goods  into 
canoes  and  gone  down  the  river,  and  it  was  the  last  that 
was  ever  heard  of  them.  It  was  thought  that  some  of  their 
friends  in  Calhoun 'county,  where  they  came  from,  had 
come  up  and  liberated  them.  If  they  had  not  escaped  it 
is  probable  that  they  would  have  been  hung. 

The  new  jail  stood  about  ten  rods  south  of  the  place 
where  the  old  court  house  was  located.  At  that  time 
school  was  being  taught  in  the  old  log  court  house  by  Peter 
Wood.  I  can  remember  how  the  school  boys  used  to  go 
and  look  through  the  grates  of  the  jail  to  see  the  Fenners 
when  they  were  there,  and  how  we  used  to  crawl  in  and  out 
of  the  hole  between  the  logs  which  they  crept  through  in 
escaping.  These  public  buildings  in  the  '20s  were  very 
primitive  buildings  that  would  cause  much  derision  in 
these  days. 

Mr.  Rowley,  the  father  of  the  murdered  girl,  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  Rowley  -who  moved  into  the  settle- 
ment some  years  after,  and  who  also  had  some  daughters. 
The  first  Rowley,  whose  daughter  married  Fenner,  wa? 
about  fifty  years  old,  and  had  at  some  period  in  his  life 


8  EABLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

met  with  a  misfortune  that  had  given  him  a  stiff  neck. 
He  could  not  turn  his  head  in  any  direction  any  more  than 
if  his  neck  had  been  marble.  He  was  at  one  time  the  guest 
of  my  father  during  a  term  of  the  court.  While  the  Fen- 
ners  were  in  jail  they  explained  this  circumstance  by  say- 
ing that  Rowley  had  at  one  time  been  hung  by  the  neck  by 
a  mob  for  horse-stealing,  but  they  took  him  down  before  he 
was  quite  dead ;  and  that  was  what  had  injured  his  neck. 
Soon  after  the  Fenners  had  escaped  from  jail,  Rowley,  with 
his  wife  and  son,  left  this  country.  I  heard  that  he  had  made 
a  solemn  vow  when  the  Fenners  got  away  that  he  would 
hunt  them  down  and  that  their  lives  should  pay  the  penalty 
for  the  life  of  his  daughter. 

Last  week  my  brother  Leonard,  of  Lewistown,  sent  me"a 
copy  of  Chapman's  History  of  Fulton  County.  In  look- 
ing over  it  I  find  that  the  author  makes  mention  of  this 
Fenner  case,  and  says  that  Judge  Stephen  Phelps  of  Lewis- 
town  defended  him  and  insisted  that  according  to  law  and 
the  Scriptures  a  man  had  the  right  to  chastise  his  wife. 
The  writer  is  evidently  in  error,  for  the  Fenners  escaped 
and  were  never  tried  for  their  crime ;  while  Judge  Phelps 
was  a  merchant  and  did  not  practice  law. 

The  first  lawyers  that  practiced  law  in  Lewistown  were 
Mr.  Caverly  of  Vandalia,  Pew  of  Springfield,  John 
Bogardus  of  Peoria  and  Hugh  R.  Coulter  of  Lewistown. 
W.  C.  Osborn  and  William  Elliott  were  the  next  lawyers 
who  came  to  Lewistown.  Among  the  first  settlers  that 
came  to  Lewistown  were  my  father's  family,  David  W. 
Barnes,  John  Totten,  John  Wolcott,  Stephen  Chase,  John 
Jewell,  Peter  White,  A.  M.  Williams,  Lyman  Tracy, 
David  Gallatine,  Stephen  Dewey,  Elijah  Wentworth, 
John  Holcomb,  Robert  Grant,  George  Matthews,  Thomas 
Covell,  Peter  Cook  and  William  Higgins.  Then  came  my 
father's  mother,  Abigail  Ross,  and  his  three  brothers, 
Joseph,  Thomas  and  John,  and  his  two  brothers-in-law, 
Simeon  TCelsey  (father  to  Capt.  William  Phelps'  first 
wife)i  and  Hugh  R.  Coulter. 

In  looking  over  Chapman's  History  of  Fulton  County 
I  find  a  great  deal  of  very  valuable  information  in  it,  and 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

I  think  he  is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  the  people  of  Fulton 
county  for  getting  up  so  good  a  work.  But  I  have  found 
some  errors  in  it,  and  some  of  these  I  may  have  occasion 
to  mention  as  I  proceed  with  my  narrative,  for  what  the 
people  want  are  the  real  facts.  A  history  that  does  not 
contain  the  truth  is  no  history  at  all. 

There  was  another  remarkable  tragedy  in  the  early  set- 
tlement of  the  county  that  caused  a  great  deal  of  talk  and 
excitement  among  the  people.  It  was  the  death  of  an  old 
gentleman,  Peter  White.  He  is  mentioned  in  Chapman's 
history  as  being  one  of  the  first  petit  jurymen  chosen  in 
the  county.  He  was  murdered,  and  his  son,  aged  twenty- 
four,  was  arrested  and  charged  with  the  murder.  I  will 
give  the  circumstances  of  this  terrible  tragedy  in  my  next 
letter. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TRAGICAL   DEATH    OF   PETER   WHITE. THE    ROSS    FERRY. 

A   FIGHT    BETWEEN   PIONEERS   AND   INDIANS. 

In  regard  to  the  tragical  death  of  Peter  White,  supposed 
to  have  been  murdered  by  his  son,  I  will  have  to  make  a 
preliminary  statement.  When  my  father  first  came  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Spoon  river,  in  1821,  he  determined,  if  pos- 
sible, that  he  would  be  the  owner  of  a  ferry  across  the  Illi- 
nois river  at  that  place  as  soon  as  possible.  It  was  forty 
miles  down  the  river  to  the  first  ferry  at  Beardstown,  and 
fifty  miles  to  Peoria,  where  the  next  ferry  was  kept.  He 
believed  that  it  would  be  but  a  few  years  until  there  would 
be  a  good  deal  of  travel  across  the  river  at  Havana,  and  that 
a  ferry  at  that  place  would  be  a  paying  investment.  He 
was  on  the  alert,  and  as  soon  as  a  license  for  a  ferry  could 
be  procured  he  got  one.  It  proved  to  be  a  good  enterprise. 
For  a  good  many  years  the  receipts  from  the  ferry 
amounted  to  about  $2,000  a  year. 

Peter  White  came  to  Lewistown  among  the  early  set- 


10  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

tiers.  He  was  fifty  years  old,  was  a  widower,  and  had  one 
son,  a  large,  stout  young  man  twenty-three  or  twenty- 
four  years  old,  and  his  name  also  was  Peter.  They  had 
worked  about  Lewistown  and  the  old  gentleman  had 
worked  for  my  father  on  the  farm.  He  was  an  eastern  man 
of  good  information,  and  a  reliable  man  to  work.  My 
father  made  a  bargain  with  both  of  them  to  go  down  to 
the  river  and  keep  the  ferry  and  to  put  up  a  house  where 
Havana  now  stands,  as  there  was  no  house  there  at  that 
time.  Mv  father  rigged  them  out  with  a  horse  to  haul  the 

*/  CO 

logs  together,  with  tools,  and  some  provisions  to  live  on, 
and  they  started  for  the  river.  He  also  secured  from  John 
Eveland  the  pirogue  alluded  to  last  week  to  be  used  until 
the  ferry  boat  could  be  built.  The  Whites  first  erected  a 
little  shanty  to  live  in  until  they  could  cut  the  timber  and 
make  the  clapboards  for  the  house.  So  everything  ap- 
peared to  start  off  all  right.  After  they  had  been  down 
about  six  weeks  young  Peter  came  up  to  Lewistown  one 
evening  a  little  after  dark,  and  staid  at  my  father's  all 
night.  The  next  morning  my  father  asked  how  he  and  his 
father  were  getting  along  with  the  house.  "  K^ot  very 
well,"  was  his  reply.  "  Has  anything  gone  wrong  ?"  asked 
my  father.  "  Yes,  my  father  is  dead,"  replied  young 
Peter.  On  being  asked  what  was  the  matter  with  his 
father,  he  coolly  said  that  he  and  his  father  were  working 
on  the  house  and  that  his  father  had  slipped  and  fallen  off 
the  house,  and  that  his  head  struck  a  log  lying  near,  and 
that  it  had  broken  his  skull,  resulting  in  his  death.  My 
father  asked  the  boy  what  he  had  done  with  his  father's 
body.  He  replied  that  he  had  dug  a  grave  and  wrapped 
him  in  a  blanket,  and  put  him  on  a  sled  and  hauled  him 
out  and  buried  him. 

The  remarkable  story  that  Peter  told  and  the  manner 
in  which  he  had  conducted  himself  made  my  father  suspi- 
cious ;  so  he  went  into  Lewistown  to  confer  with  others  as 
to  what  had  better  be  done.  It  was  not  long  until  old 
John  Eveland  came  up  from  Spoon  river,  and  he  reported 
that  Peter  had  come  to  his  house  the  day  before,  had  taken 
dinner  with  them,  had  played  ball,  had  run  foot-races,  and 


EARLY    PIONEEBS    AND    EVENTS.  11 

shot  at  a  mark  with  his  boys,  but  had  not  said  a  word  about 
his  father's  death.  So  my  father  and  Mr.  Eveland  and 
three  or  four  others  concluded  to  go  down  to  the  river,  and 
take  Peter  along,  and  investigate  the  matter.  He  took 
them  to  the  grave  where  he  had  buried  his  father.  They 
got  a  spade  and  dug  open  the  grave,  took  up  the  body,  and 
examined  it.  They  found  a  spot  on  the  side  of  the  head 
where  the  skull  had  been  broken  from  a  blow 
by  some  blunt  instrument.  They  then  went  to  the 
house  which  Peter  said  his  father  had  fallen  from. 
There  was  no  logs  near  the  house  on  which  he 
could  have  struck  his  head,  and  the  house  had 
only  been  raised  six  or  seven  feet,  so  that  a  fall  from  it  was 
not  likely  to  kill  a  man.  Some  ten  feet  away  was  a  pile 
of  logs,  with  a  couple  of  handspikes  lying  upon  them  which 
had  been  used  in  handling  the  logs.  All  of  the  men  were 
of  the  opinion  that  the  old  man  had  come  to  his  death  from 
a  blow  struck  by  Peter  with  one  of  those  handspikes.  They 
believed  that  Peter  and  his  father  had  quarreled  about 
something,  and  that  Peter  in  a  passion  had  struck  his 
father  with  a  handspike,  but  with  no  intention  of  killing 
him ;  but  that  the  blow  had  proved  fatal. 

As  the  supposed  murder  had  occurred  in  Sangamon 
county  it  was  decided  that  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  send 
Peter  to  Springfield,  and  a  couple  of  men  agreed  to  take 
him  there  and  deliver  him  to  the  sheriff.  The  other  men 
returned  to  their  homes.  The  next  day  the  two  men  came 
back  to  Lewistown  and  reported  that  Peter  had  gotten 
away  from  them.  It  was  the  general  belief  that  they  had 
given  Peter  a  good  whipping  and  let  him  go.  But  that 
was  the  last  that  was  ever  heard  of  him  in  that  country. 

The  next  parties  that  my  father  got  to  take  charge  of  the 
ferry  were  ]STorman  and  Ira  Scoville,  two  brothers.  They 
finished  the  house  that  the  Whites  had  commenced  to  build, 
and  also  built  another  log  house  near  by.  These  men  staid 
two  or  three  years,  when  Gorman  Scoville  engaged  to  run  a 
keel  boat  for  the  Phelpses,  and  then  my  father  rented  the 
ferry  property  to  Samuel  Mallory  and  Wm.  l^icholls. 
They  were  keeping  the  ferry  and  the  tavern  at  the  time  the 


12  EABLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

fight  took  place  between  the  Indians  and  the  whites  as  re- 
corded in  Chapman's  history,  page  205.  The  author  has 
made  some  mistakes  in  regard  to  material  facts.  He  says 
the  fight  took  place  in  1828  at  Mallory's  ferry,  and  that  the 
whites  proved  to  be  the  victors.  This  is  all  wrong.  The 
battle  took  place  in  1826,  and  the  ferry  was  never  called 
Mallory's  ferry,  but  was  Ross'  ferry.  ]STo  man  named 
Mallory  ever  kept  the  ferry,  and  the  Indians  were  the  vic- 
tors in  the  fight.  The  true  history  of  that  fight  is  as  fol- 
lows :  As  I  have  already  stated,  Samuel  Mallory  and  his 
stepson,  Wm.  Nicholls,  had  rented  the  ferry  of  my  father. 
They  were  both  old  settlers  of  Fulton  county.  Mallory  was 
the  father  of  Hirah  Saunders'  wife  and  the  grandfather  of 
Mrs.  Judge  H.  L.  Bryant.  A  few  years  later  he  and  ISTich- 
olls  settled  some  eight  miles  south  of  Canton  on  the  Lewis- 
town  road. 

After  they  had  been  at  the  river  a  few  weeks  they  re- 
ceived by  keel  boat  a  barrel  of  whisky  from  St.  Louis.  At 
that  time  all  tavern  keepers  were  expected  to  keep  liquor 
for  the  accommodation  of  their  guests.  In  fact,  almost 
every  merchant  in  the  country  kept  whisky  for  sale  as  free- 
ly as  any  other  kind  of  goods.  A  party  of  Indians  were 
travelling  up  the  Illinois  river  in  their  canoes  and  camped 
a  half  mile  above  the  ferry.  They  came  down  to  the  house 
to  trade  some  furs  for  whisky,  as  they  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  doing  with  the  Scovilles.  But  Mallory  refused  to  let 
them  have  any  whisky.  As  he  was  alone  they  drew  their 
tomahawks  over  his  head  and  compelled  him  to  give  them 
whisky.  Win.  Nicholls,  who  had  been  out  working  in  the 
woods,  came  home,  and  seeing  the  situation  Mallory  was 
in,  slipped  away  and  got  into  a  canoe  and  slipped  across  the 
river  to  where  the  keel  boat  was  lying.  But  part  of  the 
boat  crew  had  started  off  for  Lewistown.  He  hurried  on 
and  overtook  them,  and  told  them  the  situation  that  Mal- 
lory was  in.  So  each  one  of  them  cut  a  stout  hickory  cane 
and  went  back  with  him  to  rescue  Mallory.  They  found 
that  some  twenty-five  Indians  had  Mallory  completely  un- 
der their  control.  Some  of  them  were  pretty  drunk  and 
all  were  having  a  jolly  time  except  Mallory.  The  white 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  13 

men  ordered  the  Indians  to  leave,  but  they  refused  to  go, 
and  then  the  fight  commenced,  the  white  men  using  their 
hickory  canes  on  the  heads  of  the  Indians.  But  the  Ind- 
ians were  about  four  to  one,  and  they  succeeded  in  getting 
the  canes  away  from  the  white  men.  It  was  a  pretty  hot 
fight  for  about  half  an  hour,  and  the  whites  would  probably 
have  whipped  the  Indians,  but  while  they  were  in  the  fight 
they  saw  some  squaws  coming  from  the  canoes  with  Indian 
spears  and  tomahawks  for  the  use  of  the  Indians.  Then 
the  whites  thought  it  was  about  time  to  retreat  and  get 
more  help.  As  they  were  hurrying  to  the  ferry  boat  they 
discovered  Simeon  Kelsey  and  a  couple  of  Indians  having 
a  hard  fight  near  the  river,  and  in  attempting  to  capture 
the  Indians  one  of  the  Indians  ran  into  the  river  and  they 
took  after  him  with  the  ferry  boat,  and  when  they  would 
get  near  him  he  would  dive  under  the  water  and  come  up  a 
rod  or  two  behind  the  boat  and  would  be  making  for  the 
shore.  The  white  men  would  then  have  to  turn  their  boat 
and  go  after  him  again ;  he  would  play  the  same  game  of 
dodging  them;  they  kept  up  this  chase  for  about  half  an 
hour,  when  they  came  upon  him  where  they  could  see  his 
head  two  feet  under  the  water.  One  of  the  men  ran  his 
arm  down  and  caught  him  by  the  hair,  and  as  he  drew  his 
head  over  the  side  of  the  boat  another  man  drew  his  knife 
and  cut  the  Indian's  throat,  leaving  him  to  sink  in  the 
river. 

The  men  returned  to  the  keel  boat  and  Wm.  N"icholls 
started  to  Lewistown  for  more  men  to  fight  the  Indians. 
He  got  there  after  dark,  raised  the  alarm,  and  the  next 
morning  fifteen  men  on  horseback  started  for  the  battle- 
field. I  will  give  the  result  of  their  expedition  in  my  next 
letter. 


14  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ENDING  OF  THE  INDIAN  FIGHT. MY  BOYHOOD   GHOST 

FOR  AN  INDIAN  SCARE. MY  FATHER'S  TRADE  WITH  THE 

INDIANS. EARLY  RELIGIOUS   CUSTOMS   OF   THE   INDIANS. 

A   WAR  DANCE. 

To  continue  the  story  of  the  Indian  fight  as  described 
last  week:  The  company  of  men  raised  in  Lewistown 
numbered  fifteen,  all  on  horseback  and  each  with  a  gun. 
Among  those  in  the  company  were  Robert  Grant,  John 
Jewell,  Wm.  Johnson,  John  and  Wm.  Mcholls,  Moses 
Freeman,  Isaac  Benson,  O.  M.  Ross  and  Edward  Plude. 
Freeman  and  Benson  had  come  a  few  weeks  before  from 
the  East,  and  were  engaged  at  the  time  in  putting  the  coun- 
ters and  shelves  in  a  store  room  for  my  father  that  stood  on 
the  Harris  corner  in  Lewistown.  ,  Pluclfi  was  a  French- 
man, and  kept  store  in  a  frame  house  .where  Ewan's  hard- 
ware store  now  stands. 

When  the  company  got  to  the  Illinois  river  at  Havana 
1hey  were  joined  by  the  keel-boat  crew  that  had  had  the 
fight  with  the  Indians  the  day  before,  with  the  exception  of 
Kelsey,  who  had  been  badly  used  up  in  the  fight  and  was 
not  able  to  go  with  them.  The  men  all  got  on  the  ferry 
boat  and  took  as  many  horses  as  they  could  crowd  on  the 
boat,  and  started  across  the  river.  Sonj.e  "squaws  a  little 
way  down  the  river  saw  the  men  coming ;  they  ran  up  the 
bank  and  told  the  Indians  that  a  great  company  of  white 
men  were  coming  with  guns.  Plude  understood  the  Indian 
language,  and  knew  what  the  squaws  said  to  the  Indians. 
The  Indians  instantly  took  the  alarm  and  started  on  the 
run.  Some  went  to  their  canoes  and  poled  off  up  the  river, 
and  some  ran  to  the  woods.  The  men  followed  the  Indians 
that  ran  to  the  woods  until  they  got  into  the  swamps  and 
marshes  a  few  miles  up  the  river,  and  then  they  had  to  give 
up  the  chase. 

The  company  came  back  to  Mallory's  house  where  the 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  15 

fight  had  taken  place  the  day  before.  They  found  some 
pools  of  blood,  and  a  short  distance  away  they  found  two 
new-made  graves,  showing  that  the  fight  had  been  a  hard 
one  and  that  at  least  two  Indians  had  been  killed  with  clubs 
besides  the  one  whose  throat  was  cut  on  the  ferry  boat. 
They  also  found  that  no  more  than  eight  or  ten  gallons  of 
whisky  had  been  taken  from  Mallory's  barrel,  and  that  his 
household  goods  had  not  been  touched.  So  that  ended  the 
fight  of  Ross'  ferry  for  that  time. 

Mallory  and  Nicholls  kept  the  ferry  for  about  a  year 
after  that  and  never  had  any  further  trouble  with  the 
Indians.  My  father  then  moved  to  Havana  and  took 
charge  of  the  ferry  himself. 

The  Indian  that  had  his  throat  cut  floated  down  the  river 
and  landed  in  some  driftwood  at  the  head  of  an  island  three 
miles  below  Havana.  We  had  often  heard  the  hunters 
tell  of  the  Indian's  bones  lying  in  the  driftwood  there.  At 
that  time  was  living  with  my  father  John  Herriford,  who 
was  so  long  a  resident  at  Bernadotte,  and  he  was  wellknown 
to  many  of  the  pioneers  of  Fulton  county.  One  Sunday 
John  wrent  down  to  the  island  and  brought  up  the  Indian's 
skull  and  jawbone.  As  soon  as  I  saw  them  I  decided  to 
have  a  good  deal  of  sport  in  frightening  the  Indians,  who  I 
were  very  superstitious.  I  thoroughly  cleaned  the  skull 
and  jawbone,  and  fastened  them  on  a  jackstaff  about  four 
feet  long,  sharpened  at  the  lower  end  to  be  stuck  into  the 
ground.  I  then  fixed  the  skull  so  that  I  could  put  into  it 
a  lighted  candle.  When  the  scarecrow  was  set  up  of  a  dark 
night,  with  the  candle  lighted  and  shining  out  of  the  eye- 
sockets,  ears,  nose,  and  through  the  gleaming  white  teeth, 
it  was  certainly  the  most  terrifying  object  mortal  ever  be- 
held. About  a  mile  above  Havana  there  were  eighteen  or 
twenty  wigwams  of  Indians,  and  they  were  in  the  habit  of 
coming  to  town  every  week  to  do  some  trading,  and  would 
frequently  stay  until  after  dark  before  starting  home.  I 
knew  the  path  they  traveled  and  would  have  the  ghost  set 
up  a  few  rods  from  their  path.  When  they  would  discover 
my  hideous  ghost  they  would  start  on  the  run  as  fast  as 
their  legs  could  carry  them,  frightened  nearly  into  convul- 


16  EARLY    PIONEEBS    AND    EVENTS. 

sions.  It  made  a  great  commotion  among  the  Indians  for 
awhile,  but  my  father  found  out  what  was  going  on  and 
put  a  sudden  stop  to  all  my  fun.  One  day  a  steamboat 
landed  at  the  wharf  and  I  went  down  to  it  with  my  scare- 
crow. The  pilot  paid  rne  $2  for  the  outfit  to  put  upon  the 
bow  of  his  boat  at  night  to  scare  the  natives  along  the  river. 

Soon  after  my  father  went  to  Havana  he  built  three 
warehouses,  one  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  and  two  on  the 
west  side.  One  of  these  was  north  of  Spoon  river,  and  the 
other  on  the  south  side.  They  were  built  of  hewed  logs 
and  were  used  to  store  the  produce  of  farmers  and  the  mer- 
chandise of  the  merchants  who  lived  on  both  sides  of  the 
river.  The  upper  part  of  the  warehouse  on  the  Havana 
side  of  the  river  he  finished  off  for  a  store  and  opened  there- 
in a  stock  of  goods.  The  nearest  stores  to  him  was  at  Lew- 
istown,  twelve  miles  away  on  the  west,  and  ISTew  Salem, 
twenty-five  miles  east.  The  Phelpses  had  established  a 
trading  post,  two  years  before,  on  Grand  Island,  nine  miles 
below  Havana;  but  when  my  father  opened  his  store  they 
closed  out  their  business  on  the  island  and  moved  to  Yellow- 
banks  (now  Oquawka)  on  the  Mississippi  river. 

My  father  had  a  large  trade  with  the  Indians,  for  they 
were  scattered  all  over  the  country  up  and  down  the  Illinois 
river  and  both  sides  of  the  Spoon  river.  Their  wigwams 
could  be  counted  by  the  hundreds.  About  the  mouth  of 
Spoon  river  was  a  great  resort  for  their  Indian  ponies. 
Hundreds  of  them  would  be  brought  there  every  fall  to 
feed  on  the  grass  that  kept  green  all  winter ;  and  if  there 
was  a  deep  snow  the  Indians  would  chop  down  small  trees 
for  their  ponies  to  browse  upon  until  the  snow  went  off. 
My  father  would  often  sell  them  goods  on  a  credit  of  six 
months,  but  would  require  a  recommendation  from  some 
of  their  chiefs,  which  made  them  very  punctual  to  pay  their 
debts.  The  Indians  were  very  numerous  in  all  that  coun- 
try until  in  1832  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out  and 
they  all  went  west. 

These  Indians  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  moon  each  fall 
held  a  great  religious  festival  on  the  island  just  in  front 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  17 

of  Havana.  It  was  then  a  very  heavily  timbered  and 
picturesque  spot.  The  Indians  would  congregate  there 
in  hundreds,  and  their  religious  rites  and  ceremonies 
would  last  four  days.  They  had  an  abundance  of  good 
things  to  eat,  and  put  in  much  of  the  time  singing  and  J 
dancing.  One  of  their  ceremonies  was  to  burn  a  live  dog 
to  death.  They  would  select  a  small  white  dog  and  make 
his  feet  fast  with  four  wooden  pins  which  they  would 
drive  in  the  ground,  and  then  pile  wood  and  brush  over 
him  until  he  was  covered  four  or  five  feet  deep.  They 
would  set  fire  to  the  pile  and  then  gather  in  a  ring  about 
it.  When  the  dog  would  commence  to  burn  he  would  set 
up  the  most  terrimc  and  awful  howling  that  was  ever 
heard.  His  cries  would  ring  through  the  woods  for  half 
a  mile.  When  the  dog  would  commence  howling,  the 
Indians  would  set  up  some  doleful  and  dismal  dirge  and 
keep  it  up  as  long  as  the  dog  kept  howling.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  war-dance,  and  that  would  be  the  end  of  the  fes- 
tival. My  brother  Leonard  was  present  at  one  time  when 
they  made  a  sacrifice  of  a  little  dog.  He  was  only  about 
seven  or  eight  years  old,  but  when  the  little  dog  made  such 
a  terrible  yelping  he  wanted  to  clean  out  the  whole  Indian 
tribe. 

There  were  many  singular  customs  and  tragic  events 
relating  to  these  Indians  that  I  may  detail  as  I  proceed 
with  my  narrative. 


18  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 


CHAPTEK  V. 

AN  EARLY  PIONEER  DANCE. MAJOR  NEWTON  WALKER  AND 

HIS  FIDDLE. A  PIONEER  WAGON  HIDE. 

CORRECTION — Hon.  Inman  Blackabj  says  Mr.  Ross  is  in  error  in  his 
statement  in  Chapter  III,  that  •'  Samuel  Mallory  was  the  father  of 
Hirah  Saunders'  wife,  and  grandfather  to  Mrs.  H.  L.  Bryant."  The 
fact  is  that  Mrs.  Hirah  Saunders  was  a  step-daughter  to  Samuel  Mallory 
— a  full  sister  to  Wm.  K.  Nicholls  also  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Ross.  Mr. 
Blackaby  lived  with  W.  K.  Nicholls  in  1846,  and  Mr.  Mallory  and  his 
wife  were  living  with  them  at  that  time.  Mr.  Blackaby  taught  school 
in  that  district  and  boarded  with  these  people  part  of  the  time.  Mr. 
Ross'  letters  will  doubtless  go  into  a  future  history  of  Fulton  county. 
He  will  join  the  editor  of  The  Democrat  in  thanking  pioneers  for  similar 
corrections  as  to  any  fact. 

In  The  Democrat  of  June  10  I  find  the  story  related  by 
Major  Newton  Walker  about  his  fiddling  at  our  Havana 
ball  sixty  years  ago.  He  has  always  been  noted  for  his 
accurate  memory,  but  in  this  case  he  has  forgotten  some  of 
the  incidents.  It  will  interest  young  people  to  know  about 
the  pioneer  manner  of  conducting  parties.  It  was  Dr. 
Price,  and  not  Dr.  Allen,  who  went  with  me  to  Lewistown 
to  secure  the  services  of  Major  Walker  as  our  fiddler. 
Dr.  Price  then  lived  in  Havana,  but  afterwards  moved  to 
Lewistown.  Dr.  Hillburt  was  also  a  Havana  doctor. 
When  the  Major  agreed  to  go  with  us  we  called  for  him 
at  Truman  Phelps'  tavern  in  a  common  two-horse  wagon. 
He  was  evidently  expecting  a  carriage,  but  was  too  polite 
to  say  anything.  The  only  seat  was  a  board  laid  across 
the  wagon  bed.  The  Major  came  out  with  his  violin  in 
a  beautiful  case,  and  the  case  was  wrapped  up  as  carefully 
as  if  it  had  been  a  baby.  We  got  on  very  well  until  we 
came  to  the  bottom  road  beyond  Waterford  where  heavy 
teaming  had  made  deep  ruts.  The  front  wheels  would 
occasionally  drop  into  a  deep  rut,  and  down  would  go  our 
seat  with  all  three  of  us  sprawling  in  the  wagon  bed.  But 
we  finally  got  to  the  ball-room,  and  the  dance  commenced 
much  as  the  Major  described  it.  The  man  who  wanted 


EARIA'    PIONEEES    AND    EVENTS. 

him  to  play  faster  was  Dr.  Hillburt.  He  was  very  portly, 
and  weighed  some  200  pounds.  After  Hillburt  had  danced 
about  half  an  hour,  he  pulled  off  his  coat;  a  little  later  away 
went  his  vest ;  and  as  he  got  warmer  he  kicked  off  his  shoes 
and  finished  the  "French  four"  in  his  stocking  feet.  In 
regard  to  the  Major's  comments  on  my  dancing  I  have  only 
to  say  that  he  had  not  lived  long  enough  in  Illinois  to  know 
Avhat  good  Sucker  dancing  was  !  After  the  dance  was  over 
we  took  up  a  collection  of  about  $10  to  pay  the  fiddler,  but 
Major  Walker  declined  the  money,  and  said  he  would  only 
ask  us  to  send  him  back  to  Lewistown.  I  can  only  say  that 
if  he  had  run  for  office  he  would  have  gotten  every  vote  in 
Havana. 

But  he  is  in  error  in  saying  that  it  was  the  first  time  we 
had  ever  met.  I  remember  very  well  when  Col.  Simms 
and  Major  Walker  passed  through  Havana  with  their  car- 
avan from  Virginia.  They  stayed  with  my  father  over 
night,  and  the  next  morning  we  ferried  them  over  the  Illi- 
nois river.  They  had  the  most  splendid  traveling  outfit  I 
had  ever  seen.  Their  horses  were  large  and  fine.  They 
had  several  carriages  and  wagons,  and  one  tremendous  four- 
horse  "prairie  schooner."  The  wagon  was  about  twenty 
feet  long  and  eight  feet  high,  and  all  heavily  ironed  off  in 
old  Virginia  style.  The  ferryman  said  that  it  was  the  big- 
gest wagon  that  had  ever  crossed  the  river. 

About  two  months  later  I  took  a  carriage  and  a  light  pair 
of  horses  to  drive  my  mother  over  to  Lewistown  to  visit  her 
brother,  Mahlon  Winans,  who  then  lived  where  Major 
Walker  now  lives.  Three  or  four  miles  out  of  Lewistown 
one  of  our  axletrees  was  broken.  W'e  then  made  our  way 
afoot  to  the  cabin  of  Nathaniel  Bordwine  (still  living  in 
Lewistown),  hoping  to  get  a  wagon  from  him,  but  it  was  in 
Lewistown.  I  left  mother  at  the  cabin  and  with  my  horses 
went  on  to  Mr.  McGeehee's  farm,  but  his  wagon  was  not  at 
home.  Thence  I  went  on  to  Minard  Van  Dyke's,  then  to 
Dr.  Rice's,  and  then  to  George  Bennett's,  but  their  wagons 
were  away  or  busily  employed.  Lastly  I  went  to  Hiram 
Wentworth's  place  (just  east  of  Lewistown),  sure  that  I 
would  get  a  wagon  there.  When  I  rode  up  to  the  house  the 


20  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

first  thing  that  struck  my  attention  was  a  strapping  big 
negro  at  work  in  the  yard,  and  in  the  lane  stood  the  mighty 
"prairie  schooner"  we  had  ferried  across  the  river.  Major 
Walker  came  to  the  door  and  told  me  that  he  had  bought 
the  Wentworth  place.  I  told  him  of  my  predicament ;  but 
Col.  Simins  had  driven  the  carriage  into  town,  and  there 
was  not  a  wagon  on  the  place  except  the  huge  four-horse 
one.  I  could  not  wait  for  the  carriage,  as  a  storm  was 

—.brewing;  so  with  the  negro's  help  I  hitched  my  two  little 
horses  onto  the  big  wagon.  The  stiff  tongue  stuck  six  feet 
out  ahead  of  them,  and  when  I  climbed  into  the  wagon  the 
front  end-gate  came  up  to  my  chin.  The  big  negro  said  to 
me :  "Young  massa,  what  y'er  goin'  to  do  wid  dat  big  wag- 
on ?"  I  told  him  that  I  was  going  to  take  a  lady  a  riding.  It 
tickled  him  tremendously,  and  as  I  drove  away  he  stood 
with  his  mouth  spread  and  nearly  in  convulsions  of  laugh- 
ter. He  had  doubtless  seen  many  strange  things,  but  to 
take  a  lady  riding  in  a  four-horse  wagon  was  too  much  for 
him. 

And  so  I  drove  back  in  state  to  get  mother.  Fortunate- 
ly, there  was  a  high  rail  fence  at  Mr.  Bordwine's ;  so  mother 
climbed  the  high  fence  and  so  got  into  the  wagon.  [Mrs. 
Ross  was  very  fleshy. — Ed.]  There  was  a  huge  chain  on 
each  side  of  the  wagon,  and  at  each  hill  I  had  to  climb  out 
and  lock  the  wheels  to  keep  the  big  wagon  from  running 
over  my  little  horses.  We  fortunately  arrived  in  Lewis- 

•  town  after  dark,  and  escaped  the  astonished  gaze  of  the 
people.  But  when  we  got  to  Uncle  Winans'  there  was  no 
high  fence,  and  no  ladder.  It  was  a  profound  problem  as 
to  how  we  would  ever  get  mother  out  of  her  chariot.  But 
finally  a  common  wagon  was  run  up  close  to  the  big  one, 
and  by  the  aid  of  a  high  chair  we  managed  to  get  her  safely 
to  earth.  The  next  day  mother  sent  me  back  with  the  big 
wagon  to  Major  Walker,  and  gave  me  a  half  dollar  to  pay 
for  its  use.  But  I  said  it  was  such  a  big  wagon  the  price 
might  be  more.  So  she  gave  me  another  fifty  cents.  When 
I  drove  out,  there  stood  that  big  negro  in  the  same  spot,  his 
mouth  wide  open,  laughing,  just  as  I  had  left  him,  giving 
me  the  impression  that  my  joke  had  paralyzed  him  the 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  21 

night  before.  But  I  gave  him  the  dollar  to  pay  Major 
Walker.  He  soon  came  out  and  said :  "  De  folks  say  der 
ain't  no  charge,  and  you'm  pufecly  welcome  to  de  wagin." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  FIRST  LOG  HOUSES,  THEIR  CONSTRUCTION. OLD-FASH- 
IONED FIREPLACE ;  THE  LATCH-STRING  ;  THE  HOMINY 
MORTAR;  THE  EEAP-HOOK  AND  FLAIL. — THE  FIRST 

HORSE  MILL  OF  THE  EARLY  SETTLER. "SQUAW  CORN." 

— MY  MOTHER'S  RESCUE  OF   HER  KETTLE   FROM  THE 
INDIANS,  WITH  HER  FIRE-SHOVEL. 

As  stated  in  my  first  letter,  my  father  moved  his  family 
from  New  York  to  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  in  1821,  locat- 
ing on  his  farm  just  north  of  the  city  of  Lewistown.  The 
country  was  at  that  time  a  vast  wild  wilderness,  covered  by 
majestic  trees,  and  Indian  wigwams  were  scattered  thickly 
all  over  the  wilderness.  The  only  indications  that  white 
men  had  ever  before  penetrated  the  country  were  the  marks 
and  numbers  on  occasional  trees,  the  handiwork  of  a  com- 
pany of  surveyors  who  had  surveyed  the  land  some  two  or 
three  years  earlier.  Our  nearest  white  neighbors  were  six 
miles  away  on  Spoon  river ;  the  next  nearest  at  Rushville, 
thirty  miles  south ;  and  on  the  north  the  nearest  white  in- 
habitants were  at  Fort  Clark,  now  Peoria,  fifty  miles  dis- 
tant. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  on  our  arrival  at  our  wilder- 
ness home,  was  to  build  a  log  house.  The  younger  people 
will  be  interested  to  know  how  it  was  built,  and  how  we 
commenced  life  in  the  wilderness.  The  first  house  my 
father  built  was  20  x  24  feet  in  size  and  one  story  high. 
We  cut  trees  of  uniform  size  for  the  logs,  and  the  ends  of 
each  log  were  "saddled,"  or  notched,  so  as  to  bring  the  logs 
as  near  together  as  possible.  The  cracks  between  them 
were  "chinked,"  or  filled  with  small  slabs,  and  then  daubed 
with  mud  inside  and  out.  It  made  as  solid  a  wall  as  brick 


22  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

and  mortar.  The  gables  were  made  of  logs  gradually 
shortened  to  the  comb.  The  roof  was  made  of  small  logs 
laid  from  gable  to  gable;  on  these  were  laid  clapboards, 
and  these  were  fastened  down  by  logs  laid  upon  each  row, 
there  being  no  nails.  These  outside  logs  were  held  in 
place  by  laying  pieces  of  timber  between  them.  A  wide 
chimney-place  was  cut  out  of  one  end  of  the  cabin,  and 
the  chimney  built  outside  of  the  house.  It  was  built  of 
rived  sticks  put  up  cob-house  fashion  and  plastered  inside 
and  out  with  clay  mortar.  The  fire-place  was  made  large 
enough  to  take  in  a  four-foot  back-log.  The  floors  were 

O  w 

made  of  puncheons  hewed  smooth  on  one  side;  the  doors 
of  split  boards,  shaved  with  a  drawing-knife,  and  hung 
with  wooden  hinges.  The  door  was  opened  by  pulling  a 
leather  latch-string  which  raised  a  wooden  latch  inside  the 
door.  For  security  at  night  the  latch-string  was  pulled 
in,  then  there  was  no  way  to  open  the  door  from  the  out- 
side. After  the  house  was  built  the  first  thing  that  was 
done  was  to  break  up  twenty  acres  of  land,  and  fence  it, 
and  plant  it  in  corn  and  vegetables,  and  in  the  fall  we 
put  in  ten  acres  of  wheat.  As  soon  as  the  corn  got  hard 
enough  to  grate,  a  grater  was  prepared  by  taking  a  piece 
of  tin  and  piercing  it  with  a  great  number  of  holes,  and 
then  bending  it  over  a  piece  of  short  board.  With  this 
simple  instrument  the  corn  was  rubbed  into  meal.  It 
made  very  good  bread  and  was  most  excellent  for  mush. 
As  soon  as  the  corn  got  hard  enough  to  pound,  a  hominy 
mortar  was  made.  This  was  done  by  burning  a  hole  in 
one  end  of  a  log  or  in  the  top  of  a  stump  large  enough  to 
hold  a  peck  of  corn.  Then  we  had  a  wooden  pestle  which 
was  suspended  by  a  spring-pole  to  lessen  the  labor;  and 
with  this  pestle  and  mortar  the  grains  of  corn  were 
crushed  into  excellent  meal.  Another  way  we  had  of  pre- 
paring our  corn  was  by  scalding  it  with  strong  lye  made 
from  wood  ashes  until  the  husk  was  eaten  off  by  the  alkali, 
and  then  washing  the  corn  in  clean  water  until  all  traces 
of  the  husk  and  taste  of  the  lye  were  removed.  This  was 
the  old-fashioned  hominy,  and  made  a  very  good  substi- 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 


23. 


tute  for  bread.  When  our  wheat  was  ripe  we  cut  it  with 
a  sickle,  or  a  reap-hook,  and  then  thrashed  it  out  with  a 
flail  or  tramped  it  out  with  horses,  winnowed  it  with  a 
sheet,  ground  it  in  a  horse-mill,  bolted  it  with  a  hand-bolt 
and  then  baked  it  in  a  Dutch  oven. 

After  we  had  lived  in  the  county  about  a  year,  John 
Eveland,  who  lived  on  Spoon  river  six  miles  south  of  us, 
built  a  horse-mill,  which  was  the  first  mill  built  in  Fulton 
county.  I  remember  very  well  of  riding  on  a  horse  be- 
hind my  brother  Lewis  when  he  took  a  grist  of  corn  to 
Eveland's  mill  to  be  ground  into  meal.  The  fact  of  rid- 
ing twelve  miles  on  a  bare-back,  hard-trotting  horse  made 
an  impression  not  only  on  my  mind,  but  also  on  my  legs, 
that  I  did  not  soon  forget,  for  I  was  so  sore  that  I  could 
scarcely  walk  for  two  days.  So  I  am  not  mistaken  about 
where  the  first  mill  was  built,  although  Chapman's  His- 
tory of  Fulton  County  says  the  first  mill  was  built  in 
Fulton  county  by  O.  M.  Koss  at  Lewistown.  About  a 
year  after  that  time  my  father  did  build  a  horse-mill, 
which  was  the  second  mill  built  in  the  county.  It  was 
located  about  half  way  between  my  father's  house  and 
Lewistown.  The  county  road  from  Lewistown  to  Canton 
at  that  time  ran  on  the  east  side  of  Spudaway  creek  and 
a  few  rods  west  of  where  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  railroad  now 
runs,  and  ran  by  my  father's  house,  located  about  eighty 
rods  northeast  of  Major  Walker's  present  residence.  In 
about  four  years  my  father  moved  to  the  spot  w7here 
Major  Walker's  house  now  stands  and  the  road  (Main 
street)  was  changed  to  its  present  location.  When  my 
father  built  the  mill  he  also  erected  a  blacksmith  shop 
under  the  same  roof  which  was  carried  on  by  Jacob  Ni- 
man,  who  came  from  Edwardsville,  Illinois,  with  my 
father.  I  shall  have  more  to  say  of  him  and  his  wife 
as  I  proceed  with  my  story. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  country  was  full  of  Indians. 
One  could  not  travel  in  any  direction  without  coming 
across  Indian  wigwams.  Six  or  eight  families  would 
congregate  together  near  some  creek  or  spring  of  water, 


24  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

and  the  squaws  would  fence  three  or  four  acres  of  land, 
and  dig  up  the  ground,  and  plant  it  in  corn  and  beans. 
Those  were  the  principal  crops  that  they  raised.  The 
Indian  men  seldom  did  anything  but  hunt.  The  squaws 
did  all  the  hard  work.  The  corn  they  raised  was  of  a 
dark  blue  color  and  the  beans  a  dark  red.  The  kernels 
were  large  and  plump,  and  both  corn  and  beans  were  of 
a  very  early  variety.  Our  people  procured  some  of  the 
seed  to  plant  in  our  garden  for  early  use  and  raised  both 
corn  and  beans  for  several  years.  We  named  the  corn 
"Squaw  Corn."  The  squaws  fenced  in  their  ground  by 
setting  small  posts  about  ten  feet  apart  and  tying  to  them 
small  poles  with  hickory  bark  or  strings  cut  from  deer- 
skin. They  would  have  only  two  or  three  poles  to  the 
panel,  for  the  Indian  ponies  were  the  only  kind  of  stock 
they  had  to  fear.  But  when  the  white  people  came  in 
with  their  cattle  and  hogs  the  Indians  would  either  move 
further  out  in  the  wilderness  or  would  build  better  fences. 
When  we  came  and  settled  amongst  them  the  Indians  were 
very  friendly,  and  I  think  they  were  pleased  to  have  us 
come.  When  they  were  kindly  treated  they  showed  no 
disposition  to  molest  or  hurt  the  white  people.  They  had 
a  strong  propensity  to  steal  and  pilfer,  and  would  pick 
up  any  thing  they  could  find  and  carry  it  away,  so  we  had 
to  be  constantly  on  our  guard  when  they  were  around. 
About  eighteen  months  after  we  moved  on  our  farm  an 
Indian  and  two  squaws  came  to  our  house  to  trade  some 
maple  sugar  for  some  flour.  The  Indians  at  that  time 
made  considerable  maple  sugar,  and  we  were  in  the  habit 
of  getting  our  sugar  from  them.  The  men  of  our  family 
were  all  out  in  the  field  at  work,  and  there  was  no  one  at 
home  but  my  mother  and  old  Mrs.  Mman,  my  sister  Har- 
riet, myself  and  our  little  sister  Lucinda,  who  was  then 
about  a  year  old.  While  mother  was  measuring  out  the 
sugar  and  flour  one  of  the  Indian  squaws  stole  her  brass 
kettle  and  secreted  it  under  the  skirts  of  her  dress.  My 
mother  brought  the  kettle  from  New  York  and  prized  it 
very  highly.  She  had  been  using  it  just  before  the  Indians 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  25 

came  in,  and  as  there  had  been  no  other  person  in  the 
house,  she  knew  very  well  that  one  of  them  had  stolen  it. 
So  she  told  the  Indians  that  they  must  give  her  back  her 
kettle.  They  positively  denied  knowing  anything  about 
it,  and  were  starting  to  go  out  of  the  house  when,  my 
mother  seized  our  long-handled  iron  shovel,  sprang  to  the 
door  and  closed  it,  and  told  them  they  could  not  go 
until  they  gave  up  the  kettle.  They  still  denied 
having  it.  My  mother  then  ordered  them  to  take 
off  their  blankets,  for  they  all  wore  blankets.  The 
Indian  took  off  his  blanket  and  showed  that  he  did  not 
have  the  kettle;  then  one  of  the  squaws  took  off  her 
blanket,  and  showed  that  she  was  innocent;  when  the 
other  squaw  took  off  her  blanket  mother  could  plainly  see 
the  outline  of  the  kettle  under  her  skirt.  Mother  pointed 
to  it  and  told  her  to  take  it  out,  so  the  squaw  unhooked 
the  kettle  from  under  her  dress  and  gave  it  to  mother, 
Avhen  the  Indians  were  permitted  to  depart.  Mother 
very  well  knew  that  if  they  got  out  of  the  house  with  the 
kettle  she  would  never  see  it  again.  Her  intention  was  if 
the  Indians  did  not  give  up  the  kettle  to  hold  the  Indians 
there  with  the  big  iron  shovel  until  she  could  send  one 
of  the  children  to  the  field  for  the  men.  The  pioneer 
fire-shovel  was  a  very  heavy  and  formidable  weapon.  The 
women  had  to  do  all  their  cooking  in  a  fire-place,  as  cook- 
ing-stoves were  then  unknown;  and  the  iron  shovel  they 
used  to  stir  up  the  log  fire  and  to  put  coals  of  fire  on 
their  bake  oven  had  an  iron  handle  three  feet  long  and  the 
shovel  part  was  maybe  six  inches  square,  weighing  a 
pound  or  so.  It  would  have  been  a  serious  thing  coming 
in  contact  with  an  Indian's  head.  We  had  many  other 
little  conflicts  with  the  Indians,  arising  usually  out  of 
their  tendency  to  steal,  and  I  may  mention  some  of  them 
as  I  proceed  with  my  narrative. 


26  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

THE  NIMANS. FIRST  BLACKSMITH  SHOP  OPENED  BY  JACOB 

NIMAN. DR.   CHARLES  NEWTON,  A  CELEBRATED  PIONEER 

PHYSICIAN. ANOTHER  ERROR  IN  CHAPMAN'S  HISTORY. 

When  my  father  moved  to  Fulton  county  he  brought 
with  him  a  man  and  wife.  His  name  was  Jacob  ^iman. 
He  found  them  at  Edwardsville,  where  we  had  spent  a 
year  in  preparation  for  coming  to  our  wilderness  home. 
They  had  walked  all  the  way  from  Philadelphia,  and 
wanted  to  go  to  the  Military  Tract.  My  father  hired 
them,  and  they  came  with  us  up  the  river  on  the  keel  boat. 
,  Niman  was  a  lar^e,  stout  Dutchman  and  a  blacksmith 
I  by  trade.  His  wife  was  an  Englishwoman,  a  good  cook, 
1  an  excellent  seamstress,  and  could  cut  and  make  any  kind 
of  a  garment  from  a  pair  of  buckskin  breeches  to  a  lady's 
fine  dress.  In  addition  to  these  accomplishments  she  was 
a  professional  midwife.  It  made  her  a  valuable  acquisi- 
tion to  this  new  settlement,  especially  as  there  was  not  a 
doctor  nearer  than  Springfield,  fifty  miles  distant.  Her 
services  were  frequently  called  for  until  Dr.  Newton  came 
to  the  county.  JSTiman  was  a  man  of  rare  courage.  We 
had  bought  of  John  Eveland  a  sow  and  litter  of  pigs  and 
placed  them  in  a  rail  pen  near  our  house.  One  night 
Niman  heard  a  terrible  racket  in  the  pigpen,  and  seizing 
a  handspike  he  ran  out  to  find  a  huge  panther  in  the  pen 
trying  to  kill  the  pigs.  As  Niman  came  up  the  panther 
tried  to  jump  out  of  the  pen,  but  he  struck  the  animal  on 
the  head  with  the  handspike  and  killed  it. 

Mr.  Niman  opened  the  first  blacksmith  shop  in  Fulton 
county.  He  died  about  in  1825,  and  was  buried  a  few 
rods  east  of  where  the  old  Presbyterian  church  stood  (now 
the  little  East  school  house.  His  bones  are  evidently  ly- 
ing in  the  ground  occupied  by  some  of  the  residents  of  Ross 
Place.)  So  Chapman's  History  has  made  a  mistake  of 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  2 1 

ten  years  in  saying  that  Eastman  Call  opened  the  first 
blacksmith  shop  in  Lewistown.  .Niman  had  the  first. 
The  second  was  opened  by  Harrison  Hilling,  who  after- 
wards went  to  Canton  and  opened  the  first  blacksmith  shop 
in  that  town.  The  third  shop  was  opened  by  A.  W. 
Williams,  and  Eastman  Call  may  have  come  in  fourth. 

Mrs.  jSTiman  lived  at  my  father's  about  five  years.  She 
was  a  faithful,  good  woman.  She  had  left  a  son  in  Phila- 
delphia bound  out  to  learn  the  shoemaker's  trade.  He 
came  to  see  her  in  1821,  but  claimed  to  be  a  maker  of  fine 
boots  and  shoes,  and  was  afraid  the  people  of  Lewistown 
would  not  patronize  him  very  well,  so  he  located  in  Spring- 
field. Before  my  father  went  to  Havana  he  deeded  to  Mrs. 
ISTiman  a  block  of  lots  near  where  the  C.?  B.  &  Q.  depot 
now  stands  in  Lewistown,  and  built  her  a  house  on  the 
ground.  The  old  inhabitants  will  remember  the  noble 
and  kind-hearted  old  lady,  Mrs.  Jacob  JSTiman;  who  was 
ever  ready  and  willing  to  minister  to  the  sick  and  sorrow- 
ful. 

My  father  also  brought  with  him  from  Edwardsville  a 
man  named  Zweltin,  who  was  a  shoemaker,  and  a  carpenter 
by  the  name  of  Enos — -both  good  and  reliable  men. 

One  of  the  notable  characters  that  settled  in  Lewistown 
in  the  early  times  was  Dr.  Charles  Newton.  He  came 
from  Green  county,  Illinois,  and  located  in  Lewistown  in 
1825.  He  was  an  Eastern  man,  had  been  well  educated, 
and  was  considered  a  very  good  and  skillful  doctor.  He 
was  the  only  practicing  physician  in  the  county  for  about 
two  years.  He  practiced  all  over  the  county  where  there 
was  a  settlement.  He  kept  no  regular  office  but  made  his 
home  at  my  father's  most  of  the  time.  He  would  occasion- 
ally take  a  drinking  spree  that  would  last  a  day  or  two,  but 
aside  from  that  he  was  as  perfect  a  gentleman  as  any  person 
could  wish  to  have  at  their  house.  My  father  first  met  him 
at  Vandalia  and  told  him  that  he  thought  there  was  a  good 
opening  for  a  doctor  in  Lewistown  ;  so  he  closed  up  his  bus- 
iness and  moved  to  Lewistown.  He  was  a  good  deal  at- 
tached to  my  father,  and  often  said  that  there  was  no  place 
that  seemed  like  home  except  at  our  house.  A  year  after 


28  EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

we  moved  to  Havana  Dr.  Newton  came  down  to  live  with 
us.  So  he  was  the  first  doctor  at  Lewistown  and  the  first 
at  Havana. 

While  the  doctor  was  living  at  our  house  in  Havana  my 
mother  started  me  off  one  day  to  hunt  up  a  girl  to  do  our 
housework.  I  crossed  the  river  and  struck  off  into  South 
Fulton,  and  every  house  I  came  to  I  enquired  for  girls. 
Finally  I  was  directed  to  an  old  gentleman  who  lived  down 
in  the  edge  of  Schuyler  county,  by  the  name  of  Louder- 
back,  who  was  said  to  have  four  girls.  I  found  the  place 
and  told  them  my  business,  and  the  oldest  one  agreed  to  go 
with  me.  It  was  a  long  trip  and  we  did  not  get  home  until 
late  at  night.  The  doctor  had  gone  to  bed,  but  he  called  me 
to  his  room  and  wanted  to  know  what  kind  of  a  girl  that 
was  that  I  had  brought  home.  I  told  him  that  she  was  a 
splendid,  fine-looking  girl.  "Do  you  think,"  said  he,  "that 
she  would  make  the  doctor  a  good  wife  ?"  I  replied  that  I 
thought  she  would  make  any  man  a  good  wife.  So  the 
doctor  courted  her,  and  in  about  three  months  they  were 
married.  Havana  was  at  that  time  in  Tazewell  county, 
and  Tremont  was  the  county  seat,  fifty  miles  away.  So 
the  doctor  had  to  get  his  license  in  Lewistown,  and  em- 
ployed Esq.  J.  P.  Boice  of  Lewistown  to  come  down  and 
marry  them.  As  the  marriage  had  to  be  performed  in  the 
county  where  the  license  was  issued  a  crowd  of  some  twen- 
ty-five or  thirty  of  us,  with  Esq.  Boice  and  the  bride  and 
groom,  rowed  out  in  the  Illinois  river  in  a  boat  until  we  were 
past  the  channel,  so  as  to  be  in  Fulton  county,  and  the  cere- 
mony was  performed  on  theboat.  Therewasayoungharness 
maker  of  Havana  in  the  party  who  had  been  paying  his  at- 
tentions to  Miss  Louderback,  and  in  fact  was  very  much 
smitten  with  her,  for  she  was  indeed  a  very  handsome  and 
attractive  young  lady.  When  Esq.  Boice  was  repeating 
the  marriage  ceremony,  and  came  to  the  place  that  if  any 
person  had  any  objections  why  the  said  parties  should  not 
be  bound  in  the  holy  bonds  of  matrimony  to  then  let  it  be 
known  or  forever  after  to  hold  their  peace,  young  Cook, 
who  was  sitting  on  the  gunwale  of  the  boat,  rose  up  and 
said  that  he  objected.  The  'squire  asked  him  what  was 


EABLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  29 

his  objections.  He  replied  that  he  wanted  the  young  lady 
himself.  Esq.  Boice  told  him  that  he  did  not  think  that 
was  a  legal  objection,  so  went  on  and  performed  the  mar- 
riage ceremony.  The  ferry  boat  was  then  rowed  back  to 
town,  and  all  went  to  the  Havana  Hotel,  where  a  wedding 
inf  air  was  given  by  the  host  and  hostess,  and  the  table  was 
spread  with  the  best  that  the  country  could  afford.  About 
three  months  later  the  doctor  and  his  wife  moved  over  into 
South  Fulton  where  he  practiced  a  couple  of  years,  and 
then  they  moved  up  near  the  town  of  Cuba.  Dr.  Newton 
was  appointed  surgeon  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He  was 
entitled  to  two  servants,  and  had  the  right  to  draw  pay  for 
them  the  same  as  for  himself.  When  the  pay  roll  was  be- 
ing made  out  the  officers  asked  the  doctor  what  were  the 
names  of  his  two  servants.  He  had  no  servants,  but  in  or- 
der to  draw  pay  for  them  he  gave  the  names  of  George 
Baker  and  Truman  Phelps.  On  being  asked  afterwards 
why  he  gave  these  two  names,  he  said  that  they  had  served 
him  more  times  than  any  other  men  he  could  think  of. 
Each  one  kept  a  tavern  and  a  bar,  and  it  was  at  the  bar 
that  they  had  "  served "  him  so  faithfully.  Truman 
Phelps  was  a  very  proud  man  and  was  terribly  cut  up  at 
being-  officially  rated  as  a  servant. 

Chapman's  History  says  that  Truman  Phelps  kept  the 
first  tavern  in  Fulton  county.  This  is  a  mistake.  George 
Baker  kept  a  tavern  in  the  brick  house  occupied  by  Will- 
iam Proctor  (on  the  site  of  the  Ewan  hardware  store),  two 
years  before  Truman  Phelps  came  to  the  country.  While 
Dr.  Newton  was  still  living  with  my  father  in  Lewistown 
word  came  that  the  wife  of  Capt.  David  Haacke  was  very 
sick  and  for  the  doctor  to  come  and  see  her.  He  lived 
about  six  miles  north  of  Lewistown.  Big  Creek  had  to  be 
crossed,  a'nd  at  that  time  the  waters  were  high.  The  doctor 
had  been  drinking  some  that  day,  and  father  was  afraid 
for  him  to  go  alone;  so  he  sent  me  along  to  see  that  the 
doctor  got  through  all  right.  The  doctor  found  his  patient 
a  very  sick  woman.  He  did  the  best  he  could  for  her, 
but  in  a  few  days  she  died.  Some  years  after  that  Capt. 
Haacke  became  the  owner  of  one  of  the  finest  farms  be- 


30  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

tween  Canton  and  Cuba.  After  the  death  of  Dr.  Newton 
Capt.  Haacke  married  the  doctor's  widow,  and  soon  rented 
out  his  farm  and  moved  to  Canton.  The  last  time  I  was 
in  Canton,  some  eighteen  years  ago,  I  visited  Capt.  and 
Mrs.  Haacke  at  their  home,  and  I  think  they  were  the 
happiest  couple  I  have  ever  met.  So  I  think  Capt.  Haacke 
could  agree  with  me  in  what  I  told  Dr.  Newton  the  even- 
ing that  I  brought  the  young  lady  to  the  hotel,  that  "  she 
would  make  any  man  a  good  wife." 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 

PIKE     COUNTY     ORGANIZED. FIRST     ELECTION     IN     FULTON 

COUNTY    HELD   AT    MY    FATHER'S    HOUSE. MY    FATHER'S 

VOTE    THE    FIRST    CAST    IN    FULTON    COUNTY. JOHN    L. 

BOGARDUS,     ONE    OF    PEORIA?S    EARLY    SETTLERS. FIRST 

MARRIAGES    IN    FULTON    COUNTY. MY    SISTER    LUCINDA 

THE  FIRST  WHITE  CHILD  BORN  IN  THIS  TERRITORY. 

The  first  county  formed  west  of  the  Illinois  and  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  also  embracing  all  North  Illinois,  was 
Pike,  organized  in  1821.  The  county  seat  was  Cole's 
Grove,  now  in  Calhoun  county.  In  1824  it  was  moved  to 
Atlas,  and  in  1833  it  went  permanently  to  the  fine  little 
city  of  Pittsfield.  The  town  of  Atlas  was  laid  out  on  a 
bluff  three  miles  from  the  Mississippi  river  by  the  Ross 
brothers,  who  came  to  Illinois  the  year  before  my  father 
came.  They  were  John,  William  and  Leonard ;  they  were 
enterprising  and  excellent  citizens  and  owned  a  good  deal 
of  land  in  that  part  of  the  state.  They  not  only  located 
the  county  seat  to  their  liking,  but  subsequently  preempted 
about  all  the  local  offices  in  that  county.  They  were  dis- 
tant relatives  of  our  family,  having  also  come  from  Scot- 
land. My  father  was  so  friendly  with  them  that  he  named 
my  brother  Leonard  for  the  one  of  that  name.  Some  of 
the  descendants  of  these  Pike  county  Rosses  now  own  fine 
fruit  ranches  in  Santa  Clara  Valley,  Cal. 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  31 

The  first  probate  court  held  in  Pike  county  was  in  May, 
and  the  first  circuit  court  in  October,  1821,  at  Cole's  Grove. 
The  first  probate  judge  was  Abraham  Beck ;  the  first  cir- 
cuit judge,  John  Reynolds ;  first  representative,  Nicholas 
Hanson;  first  senator,  Thos.  Carlin.  Carlin  and  Rey- 
nolds afterwards  became,  each,  governor  of  Illinois. 

The  first  election  ever  held  near  Lewistown  was  at  my 
father's  house  Aug.  5,  1822,  while  we  were  still  in  Pike 
county.  The  judges  of  the  election  were  Abner  Eads, 
Stephen  Chase  and  Reuben  Fenner,  and  John  Totten  was 
the  clerk.  The  candidates  for  governor  at  that  election 
were  Edward  Coles,  Joseph  Phillips  and  Thomas  C. 
Brown.  Coles  got  nineteen ;  Phillips,  seven ;  Brown, 
six.  For  congress,  Daniel  P.  Cook  got  all  the  votes,  thirty- 
three;  for  representative,  Nicholas  Hanson  got  thirteen 
votes ;  for  sheriff,  John  Shaw  eighteen,  Leonard  Ross 
twelve,  and  B.  C.  Fenton  twenty;  for  coroner,  Daniel 
Whigple  twelve.  James  Bacon  fifteen. 

•  The  first  election  ever  held  in  Fulton  county  after  its 
organization  was  also  held  at  my  father's  house  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  northeast  of  the  Court  House 
Square  in  Lewistown,  on  April  14,  1823.  The  boundaries 
of  the  county  at  that  time  extended  from  the  Illinois  river 
to  the  Mississippi  and  to  the  northern  line  of  the  state,  in- 
cluding Galena,  Chicago  and  all  that  country.  The  judges 
at  that  election  were  George  Brown,  Amos  Eveland  and 
Hazel  Putnam;  the  clerks,  Thos.  Lee  Ross  and  John 
Totten.  There  were  no  great  national  issues  at  that  elec- 
tion, but  it  was  run  on  local  issues  mainly.  It  was  then — 
seventy-four  years  ago — just  what  it  has  ever  been,  North 
Fulton  vs.  South  Fulton ;  and  the  fight  was  over  the  office 
of  sheriff.  The  people  of  North  Fulton  had  nominated 
for  that  office  a  man  named  Abner  Eads  of  Peoria,  and  the 
people  of  South  Fulton  had  nominated  my  father,  Ossian 
M.  Ross.  The  voters  from  the  northern  part  of  the  county 
(all  Northern  Illinois)  came  down  the  Illinois  river  in 
canoes,  then  up  Spoon  river  to  Waterford,  and  then  walked 
through  the  woods  seven  miles  to  my  father's  house  where 
the  election  was  held,  for  it  was  then  the  only  voting  pre- 


32  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

cinct  in  all  that  majestic  portion  of  Illinois  now  containing 
fifty  counties,  many  hundreds  of  cities  and  towns,  and  peo- 
ple by  the  millions !  It  was  a  big  battle  like  some  of  the 
later  county  seat  fights  in  Fulton  county.  Eads  and 
Ross  had  marshalled  all  their  forces  from  Rushville  on  the 
south  to  Fort  Clark  (Peoria)  and  Chicago  on  the  north. 
The  North  Fultoiiites  had  brought  whiskey  with  them. 
In  those  days  men  could  travel  and  hold  elections  without 
carrying  much  food,  for  they  could  live  on  game ;  but  they 
could  not  get  on  without  plenty  of  whiskey.  When  the 
election  was  over  it  was  found  that  thirty-five  (35)  votes 
had  been  cast,  and  that  Eads  had  beaten  Ross  by  a  majority 
of  four  votes !  But  it  afterwards  was  shown  that  as  Eads 
came  down  the  river  with  his  sixteen  voters  he  stopped  at 
"  Town  Site "  (now  Pekin)  in  Sangamon  county,  and 
brought  with  him  two  bachelors — fraudulent  voters — and 
by  this  means  won  the  election. 

I  have  in  my  possession  the  original  poll  books  of  the 
elections  of  1822  and  1823,  just  as  they  came  from  the 
hands  of  the  judges  and  clerks  of  those  elections.  So  I 
can  tell  exactly  how  every  vote  was  cast.  The  poll  book 
for  1823  shows  that  my  father  cast  the  first  vote  that  was 
ever  cast  in  Fulton  county  (all  Northern  Illinois),  and  it 
was  cast  for  Abner  Eads,  his  opponent  for  the  office  of 
sheriff.  My  uncle,  Hugh  R.  Coulter,  was  the  first  county 
and  circuit  clerk,  judge. of  probate  and  county  recorder. 
My  uncle,  Thomas  Lee  Ross,  was  the  first  assessor  and 
county  treasurer.  My  uncle,  John  N.  Ross,  was  the  first 
surveyor.  In  1824  my  father  was  elected  county  treasurer 
and  sheriff  and  was  appointed  the  first  postmaster  in  big 
Fulton  county. 

In  regard  to  the  first  settlements  and  first  towns  built 
up  in  the  territory  I  have  described,  Chicago  had  the  start 
of  the  others,  and  Peoria  was  the  next.  But  in  1830  they 
both  fell  behind  some  of  the  other  towns.  The  towns  of 
Atlas,  Quincy,  Columbus,  Rushville,  Lewistown,  Peoria, 
Galena  and  Chicago  would  not,  in  1830,  have  varied  200 
in  population,  Lewistown  being  a  little  ahead  of  all  the 
others.  From  the  most  reliable  accounts  to  be  had,  Chi- 


EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  33 

cago  in  1830  did  not  contain  more  than  eighteen  to  twenty 
houses,  and  its  population  did  not  exceed  200.  It  was  or- 
ganized in  1833,  and  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1837. 

One  of  the  first  settlers  at  Ft.  Clark  (Peoria)  was  John 
L.  Bogardus.  He  went  there  in  1819.  He  was  a  lawyer, 
and  he  and  Hugh  R.  Coulter  were  the  first  lawyers  in  Ful- 
ton county.  Mr.  Bogardus  attended  the  first  court  terms 
held  in  Lewistown.  He  wras  a  very  energetic  and  success- 
ful business  man.  He  owned  most  of  the  land  that  now 
constitutes  Peoria  and  laid  out  the  first  town  lots  in  that 
city.  He  also  kept  a  ferry  across  the  Illinois  river  at  that 
place.  One  peculiar  line  of  business  he  engaged  in  was 
the  manufacture  of  fish  oil,  shipping  it  by  boat  to  St.  Louis. 
At  the  outlet  of  Peoria  Lake  in  early  times  vast  quantities 
of  fish  would  congregate.  He  had  them  caught  in  vast 
quantities  in  seines,  would  throw  them  into  huge  hoppers 
holding  several  wagon  loads,  and  leave  them  there  to  be 
tried  out  into  oil  under  the  fierce  rays  of  the  sun.  He  had 
to  employ  Creoles  and  Indians  to  do  this  work,  as  white 
men  would  at  once  go  down  with  fever  and  ague,  against 
which  the  Indians  and  Creoles  were  proof.  This  fish  oil 
was  about  the  first  produce  ever  shipped  out  of  the  county, 
except  furs. 

The  first  marriages  in  this  territory,  of  which  there  is 
any  record,  were  two  that  took  place — one  at  Chicago  and 
the  other  at  Lewistown — on  the  same  day,  July  2,  1823, 
both  then  in  Fulton  county.  One  was  the  marriage  of 
Thomas  Lee  Ross  and  Susan  ~Nye,  who  were  married  in 
Lewistown  by  Hugh  R.  Coulter,  J.  P.  The  other  was  the 
marriage  of  Alexander  Wolcott  and  Eleanor  Kinzie, 
(doubtless  the  daughter  of  the  founder  of  Chicago),  at 
Chicago,  by  John  Hamilton,  J.  P.  Both  marriage  licenses 
were  issued  by  Hugh  R.  Coulter,  county  clerk,  at  Lewis- 
town.  The  bride  of  Thomas  Lee  Ross  was  a  niece  to  Mr. 
Bogardus  above  alluded  to. 

My  sister  Lucinda  was  the  first  white  child  born  in  this 
immense  territory  above  described.  She  was  born  in 
Lewistown  Oct.  7,  1821.  She  became  the  wife  of  Judge 
William  Kellogg  of  Canton,  afterwards  a  member  of  Con- 


34:  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

gress,  and  now  resides  at  Ashtabula,  Ohio.  Her  daughter, 
Mrs.  Judge  L.  W.  James,  resides  in  Lewistown. 

.For  two  years  after  the  organization  of  Fulton  county 
the  people  of  Chicago  had  to  come  to  Lewistown  for  their 
marriage  licenses,  tavern  licenses,  ferry  licenses,  etc.,  and 
to  do  all  county  business.  When  a  couple  wanted  to  get 
married  they  would  generally  postpone  the  matter  until 
they  found  another  couple  of  the  same  mind,  or  found 
some  one  who  wanted  a  tavern  license,  and  then  they  would 
send  a  man  down  to  Lewistown  to  do  both  jobs  and  thus 
save  expense,  as  it  took  a  man  at  least  two  weeks,  horse- 
back, to  make  the  trip,  and  he  would  have  to  camp  out  in 
the  woods  most  of  the  nights  because  there  were  but  few 
settlers -along  the  route. 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  Chicago  when  Peoria  county  was 
organized  in  1825,  and  the  county  seat  located  at  Peoria. 
They  could  then  get  their  tavern  and  marriage  licenses  at 
Peoria  and  save  fifty  miles  of  travel.  So  after  1825 
Peoria  took  Chicago  under  its  wing,  and  took  a  kind  of 
motherly  care  over  the  little  thing  until  it  got  big  enough 
to  take  care  of  itself.* 


*  MANKATO,  KAS.,  July  12,  1897. 

Editor  Democrat : — I  have  been  reading  with  deep  interest  the  pioneer 
sketches  of  Mr  H.  L.  Ross,  especially  the  last  one  relating  to  Dr.  Newton. 
A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  his  drinking,  etc.,  but  no  one  has  told 
the  good  story  that  he  was  finally  converted  and  baptized  while  at  the 
home  of  my  grandfather,  Joseph  Geyer,  near  Cuba.  My  grandparents 
took  care  of  him  during  his  sickness  and  death.  I  have  in  my  poses- 
sion  one  of  his  ancient  medical  books,  and  also  a  queer  old  forceps 
with  which  he  pulled  the  teeth  of  the  pioneers  of  Fulton  county. 

GRACE  GEYER  PURDUM. 

The  editor  must  also  say  that  Dr.  Newton  was  buried  in  the  old 
cemetery.  About  three  years  ago,  in  companv  with  the  late  Dr.  Alex. 
Hull,  the  editor  was  shown  the  spot  where  Dr.  Newton  was  buried, 
although  the  grave  is  not  marked.  It  was  Dr.  Hull's  purpose  to  urge 
the  erection  of  a  suitable  monument  to  Fulton  county's  first  physician, 
but  his  death  probably  frustrated  that  kindly  purpose.  It  seems  to  us 
that  the  phvsicians  of  Fulton  county  may  yet  desire  to  perform  this 
p'rateful  act. — Editor  Democrat. 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  35 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  WENTWORTHS  AND  EARLY  CHICAGO. THE  KINGSTONS. 

— BROTHER-  LEWIS'    VISIT    TO    CHICAGO. 

In  early  times  two  families  moved  from  Lewistown  to 
Chicago — one  helping  to  organize  the  first  Methodist 
church  in  that  city,  and  the  other  the  first  Presbyterian 
church  there. 

Elijah  Wentworth  and  family  came  from  Maine  and  lo- 
cated first  at  Vandalia,  111.  In  1823  they  moved  to  Eul- 
ton  county  and  settled  on  a  piece  of  land  half  a  mile  north- 
east of  Lewistown  adjoining  my  father's  farm.  They  had 
three  sons — Hiram,  Elijah  and  George;  and  four  daugh- 
ters— Lucy,  Eliza,  Sophia  and  Susan.  They  were  Metho- 
dists, and  helped  organize  the  first  Methodist  church  in 
Fulton  county.  They  were  very  industrious  people.  Mr. 
W.  was  a  shoemaker,  and  his  sons  engaged  in  farming. 
The  mother  and  her  daughters  carried  on  an  extensive 
business  in  manufacturing  buckskin  gloves  and  mittens 
and  buckeye  and  straw  hats.  The  buckskins  they  bought 
of  the  Indians,  who  killed  the  deer  and  dressed  the  hides 
beautifully.  The  buckeye  timber  came  from  the  river 
bottoms.  The  men  prepared  that  very  tough  and  elastic 
timber  by  working  it  into  splits  that  were  braided  into 
very  handsome  and  useful  hats.  They  very  much  resem- 
bled the  Panama  hats  afterwards  so  generally  worn  by  gen- 
tlemen in  hot  weather.  The  straw  used  in  making  the 
straw  hats  was  cut  with  a  sickle  or  reap-hook  about 
the  time  the  grain  began  to  form,  because  it  would 
toughen  better  than  at  any  other  time.  The  straw 
was  bound  into  sheafs  and  laid  away  for  future  use. 
These  ladies  not  only  supplied  the  Lewistown  market,  but 
sold  gloves  and  hate  at  Springfield,  Peoria  and  other 
distant  places.  In  1827  Mr.  Wentworth  and  family  (ex- 
cept Hiram  and  Eliza,  who  were  married),  moved  to  Chi- 
cago. Eliza  married  a  Peoria  merchant  named  Clark, 


36  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

and  one  of  her  daughters  became  the  wife  of  Edward 
Sayre,  Fulton  county's  famous  pioneer  circuit  clerk.  The 
Wentworths  started  from  Lewistown  with  two  two-horse 
wagons.  In  184-2  Mr.  Wentworth  made  a  trip  back  into 
Fulton  county  to  visit  his  son  Hiram.  He  stopped  over 
night  with  my  mother,  then  living  in  Canton,  and  there 
told  me  the  story  of  his  moving  to  Chicago  fifteen  years  be- 
fore. He  said  that  on  his  trip  north,  after  he  left  Canton 
they  did  not  see  any  white  people  until  they  reached 
Peoria ;  and  not  one  from  Peoria  to  Ottawa  •  and  not  one 
from  Ottawa  to  Chicago.  They  camped  out  at  night  and 
slept  in  their  wagons.  With  their  flint-lock  guns  they 
killed  all  the  game  they  needed,  and  with  the  provisions 
they  carried  with  them  they  fared  well  on  their  journey. 
When  they  arrived  at  Chicago  they  found  some  fifty 
soldiers  at  Ft.  Dearborn  and  some  forty  or  fifty  wigwams 
scattered  down  the  Chicago  river  and  some  on  the  lake 
shore.  There  were  five  of  six  stores  or  trading  posts,  and 
their  trade  was  chiefly  with  the  Indians.  There  were  not 
(in  1827)  more  than  ten  or  twelve  white  families  in  Chi- 
cago. Some  of  the  traders  had  married  squaws  and  were 
raising  big  families  of  half-breeds.  Mr.  Wentworth  said 
a  great  deal  of  the  land  in  Chicago,  along  the  river  and 
lake,  was  low  and  marshy  with  numberless  muskrat  houses 
scattered  about.  Mr.  Wentworth  went  back  about  four 
miles  from  the  lake  and  located  on  a  fair  eighty-acre  tract 
and  improved.  His  daughters  here  bought  buckskins  from 
the  Indians  and  resumed  the  manufacture  of  gloves  and 
mittens.  The  improvement  of  Chicago  was  very  slow 
until  in  1830,  when  emigration  began  at  a  lively  rate.  It 
was  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Wentworth  and  family  helped 
to  organize  the  first  Methodist  church  in  that  city. 

Perhaps  some  of  the  readers  of  The  Democrat  may  re- 
member an  article  that  appeared  in  this  paper  Feb.  7, 
1884.  It  was  an  extract  from  the  Northwestern  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  stating  that  Mrs.  Lucy  Walker  Wentworth 
had  died  in  Chicago,  aged  eighty-four,  and  that  she  and  her 
husband  were  the  founders  of  Methodism  in  Chicago,  and 
that  they  had  formerly  lived  in  Lewistown.  The  editor 


EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  37 

of  The  Democrat  enquired  if  any  of  the  pioneers  remem- 
bered the  family.  I  replied  at  once.  It  was  the  same 
Wentworth  family  I  am  now  writing  about. 

I  was  never  able  to  learn  how  much  the  old  gentleman 
got  for  his  eighty-acre  farm,  now  almost  in  the  heart  of 
the  city ;  but  he  told  me  that  if  he  had  held  to  it  a  little 
longer  it  would  have  made  him  independently  rich. 

The  other  family,  that  moved  from  Lewistown  to  Chi- 
cago, and  helped  to  organize  the  first  Presbyterian  church 
there,  were  named  Kingston.  He  was  an  old  Scotch 
Presbyterian.  He  took  an  active  part  in  church  affairs 
in  Fulton  county,  and  I  believe  he  was  a  ruling  elder  in 
Lewistown.  His  son  John  was  about  my  own  age.  One 
of  his  daughters  taught  in  the  Sabbath  school.  Mr. 
Kingston  kept  store  in  a  log  building  that  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  late  ^Nathan  Beadles'  fine  residence.  The  cabin 
was  built  by  my  uncle,  Thos.  Lee  Eoss,  who  carried  on  the 
hatter's  trade  in  it  until  he  went  to  the  lead  mines  in  1827, 
when  Mr.  Kingston  took  the  store.  I  think  Mr.  K.  went 
to  Chicago  about  in  1830.  In  1832  he  came  back  to 
Lewistown  to  settle  up  some  business  and  stopped  at  my 
father's  house.  He  said  he  had  come  from  Chicago  to 
Ottawa  in  a  stage,  and  from  there  to  Havana  by  a  steam- 
boat. He  was  very  enthusiastic  about  Chicago's  future, 
and  told  my  father  that  good  lots  could  then  be  bought 
there  at  from  $400  to  $600  each,  and  he  urged  him  to  go 
up  and  make  an  investment.  But  father  was  then  build- 
ing the  Havana  Hotel  and  had  a  large  amount  of  busi- 
ness on  hand,  but  said  he  would  as  soon  as  possible  send 
Lewis  to  look  at  the  place.  Lewis  was  then  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war.  When  he  was  mustered  out  he  went  on  to 
Chicago  and  spent  several  days  looking  over  the  place. 
When  he  came  home  his  report  was  not  favorable.  He 
described  the  land  as  resembling  that  about  the  mouth  of 
Spoon  river  and  around  Thompson's  lake;  he  said  Chi- 
cago river  was  about  like  the  Spoon  river  and  that  it 
overflowed  like  the  Spoon  river;  that  it  was  a  swampy 
country,  and  that  his  horse  had  almost  mired  down 


38  EARLY    PIONEEKS    AND    EVENTS. 

as  he  rode  out  to  Mr.  Wentworth's;  he  also  told  about 
the  muskrat  houses,  and  said  (it  was  in  1S33)  that  there 
was  not  a  house  in  Chicago  that  compared  in  size  or  finish 
with  the  Havana  Hotel  which  my  father  had  just  com- 
pleted. I  believe  it  was  the  largest  house  in  Illinois  at 
that  time.  I  shall  have  more  to  say  about  that  hotel  in  a 
future  letter. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  HAVANA  HOTEL  ;  ITS  CONSTRUCTION. COURT  HELD  IN 

BAR-ROOM     OF     MY     HOTEL,     WHERE    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN 
ATTENDED. BLOCK  HOUSES  BUILT. 

I  will  give  a  short  history  of  the  old  Havana  Hotel 
which  my  father  built  in  Havana  in  the  early  pioneer 
times.  It  will  interest  the  younger  generation  of  today 
to  know  something  about  the  hardships  and  difficulties  the 
old  pioneers  had  to  encounter,  and  with  what  fortitude 
and  determination  they  accomplished  whatever  they  un- 
dertook to  do.  It  was  certainly  a  very  great  undertak- 
ing to  build  such  a  house  at  that  time.  There  was  no  pine 
lumber  to  be  had  nearer  than  Cincinnati,  and  the  few  saw- 
mills that  were  in  the  country  at  that  time  had  been  erected 
on  small  streams  in  Fulton  county.  Therefore  most  of  the 
sawed  lumber  used  in  the  hotel  was  sawed  by  hand  with 
a  whip-saw.  When  the  building  was  completed  it  was  in 
all  probability  the  largest  building  in  Illinois  and  had 
cost  more  money  than  any  other  one  erected  at  that  time 
in  the  state.  The  building  of  the  hotel  was  commenced 
late  in  1831  and  finished  in  1833.  It  combined  hotel 
and  store,  and  both  together  was  eighty  feet  long  by  thirty 
feet  in  width,  with  upper  and  lower  porches  ten  feet  wide 
on  each  side  of  the  house.  The  main  part  of  the  hotel 
was  four  stories  high,  and  the  store  part  two  and  a  half 
stories.  The  first  story  was  built  of  a  stone  wall  twelve 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  39 

inches  thick,  and  the  ground  floors  were  laid  with  stone. 
The  balance  of  the  building  was  of  wood.  There  were 
two  large  chimneys,  with  three  fireplaces  opening  into 
one  and  four  into  the  other.  All  the  lumber,  stone  and 
lime  used  in  building  the  house  were  brought  from  Fultoii 
county.  The  sills,  posts,  joists  and  all  the  other  large  tim- 
bers were  cut  and  hewed  in  the  woods.  The  stone  was 
taken  out  of  a  hill  in  Liverpool  township  north  of  Thomp- 
son's lake  and  carried  by  boat  down  the  lake  and  by  the 
Illinois  river  to  Havana.  The  lime  was  burned  in  the 
same  township  and  hauled  by  Zenos  Herrington  to  Ha- 
vana in  a  truck-wheeled  wagon  with  two  yoke  of  oxen. 
The  truck- wheeled  wagon  was  built  without  one  particle 
of  iron  being  used  in  its  construction.  The  wheels  and 
every  part  were  wholly  of  wood.  Mr.  Herrington  had 
no  need  to  halloo  for  the  ferry  boat  when  he  came  to  the 
river  at  Havana,  for  the  ferryman  could  hear  the  creak- 
ing of  his  wagon  half  a  mile  away.  The  timber  used  in 
building  the  hotel  was  white  oak,  ash,  and  black  and  white 
walnut.  The  weatherboarding  and  shingles  were  split 
out  of  white  oak  timber  and  shaved  to  a  proper  thickness 
with  a  drawing  knife.  The  weatherboarding  was  four 
feet  long  and  the  shingles  twenty-eight  inches.  The  lath 
was  all  split  out  in  the  woods,  and  all  the  doors,  window- 
sashes  and  mouldings  had  to  be  made  by  hand.  The 
weatherboarding  and  shingles  were  made  near  Lewistown 
by  Jonathan  Cadwallader  and  his  sons  Isaac  and  John. 
They  then  lived  in  Lewistown.  They  were  Quakers,  and 
did  a  good,  honest,  Quaker  job.  The  carpenter  work  was 
done  by  Moses,  Lewis  and  Alexander  Freeman  and  Isaac 
and  Jesse  Benson.  The  mason  work  was  done  by  Ben- 
jamin Hartland,  and  the  painting  by  Andrew  Maxfield. 
I  mention  these  names  because  they  were  old  settlers  and 
many  of  their  descendants  are  still  living  there.  About 
twenty-five  years  after  the  hotel  and  store  were  built  the 
big  house  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  was  uninsured. 

My  father  kept  the  store  and  ran  the  hotel  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1837.  Mvmother  and  brother  Lewis  admin- 


40  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

istered  on  his  estate.     His  stock  of  goods  and  other  per- 
sonal property  were  appraised  at  a  little  over  $9,000,  and 
the  administrator's  sale  amounted  to  a  little  over  $10,000. 
The  sale  was  made  on  twelve  months'  credit,  the  purchaser 
giving  note  drawing  twelve  per  cent,  interest.     After  my 
father's  death  the  store  house  and  hotel  were  rented  out, 
and  the  family  moved  to  Canton.     In  1840,  when  I  had 
taken  a  wife  in  Canton,  I  went  back  to  Havana  and  took 
charge  of  the  ferry  and  of  the  hotel,  and  ran  them  for  three 
years.     It  was  during  this  time  that  the  county  of  Mason 
was  organized  and   the  county  seat   located    at    Havana. 
There  was  no  court  house  at  that  time,  and  so  court  was 
held  in  the  bar-room  of  my  hotel,  and  some  of  the  other 
rooms  were  used  for  jury-rooms.     It  was  there  that  such 
men  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  John  J.  Harris,  E.  D.  Baker, 
H.  M.  Wead,  W.  C.  Goudy  and  John  P.  Boice  attended 
the  courts  and  took  part  in  the  pioneer  law  suits.     I  re- 
member at  one  of  the  court  terms  the  afterwards  famous 
Gen.  Harding  had  a  narrow  escape  from  death.     He  was 
very  fond  of  hunting,  and  went  out  one  morning  to  try  his 
luck  for  a  deer.     At  that  time  they  were  very  plenty  along 
the  Illinois  river.     He  did  not  have  to  travel  far  until  he 
saw  a  deer,  and  he  drew  up  his  gun  and  fired .  at  it.     But 
instead  of  killing  the  deer  the  breech-pin  flew  out  of  his 
gun  and  struck  him  in  the  face,  making  a  terrible  wound. 
It  was  several  days  before  he  could  be  taken  home,  and  he 
carried  the  scar  until  the  time  of  his  death.     Mr.  Lincoln 
never  appeared  to  care  very  much  about  hunting  and  sel- 
dom engaged  in  that  sport.     His  chief  amusement  and 
delight  was  in  telling  anecdotes  and  stories.     In  the  role 
of  story-telling  I  have  never  known  his  equal.     His  power 
of  mimicry  was  very  great.     He  could  perfectly  mimic 
the  Dutchman,  the  Irishman,  or  the  negro.     In  the  even- 
ing after  court  had  adjourned  a  great  crowd  would  gather 
around    Lincoln  in  the    bar-room  to    listen  to    Lincoln's 
stories,  and  he  seemed  to  enjoy  to  the  utmost  the  peals  of 
laughter  that  would  fill  the  house.     I  have  heard  men  say 
that  they  have  laughed  at  some  of  his  stories  until  they  had 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  41 

almost  shaken  their  ribs  loose.  I  heard  of  cases  where 
men  have  been  suffering  for  years  with  some  bodily  ailment 
and  could  get  no  relief,  but  who,  having  gone  two  or  three 
evenings  and  listened  to  Lincoln,  had  laughed  all  their  ail- 
ments away  and  had  become  well  and  hearty  men,  and  had 
given  Lincoln  the  credit  of  being  their  healer. 

It  was  during  the  time  that  my  father  was  building  the 
Havana  Hotel  that  he  had  a  200-acre  farm  fenced  and 
broken  up  a  half  mile  east  of  Havana,  the  rails  having  been 
made  on  the  banks  of  Spoon  river  and  boated  down  that 
river  and  across  the  Illinois. 

In  1833,  during  the  Black  Hawk  war,  when  so  many 
people  were  leaving  the  Military  Tract  for  fear  of  the 
Indians,  he  put  his  whole  force  of  men  to  work  and  built  a 
fort,  or  block  house,  at  Llavana,  to  be  a  refuge  for  the  white 
settlers.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  stop  the  ruinous  stam- 
pede of  people  away  from  Pulton  county. 

I  only  speak  of  these  things  to  show  what  the  old  pio- 
neers could  accomplish  under  difficulties  when  they  had  a 
mind  to  work  and  accomplish  something.* 


CHAPTER  XL 

ARRIVAL  OF  JUDGE  STEPHEN  PHELPS  AND  WILLIAM  PROC- 
TOR.  THEIR     KINDNESS     TO     THE     INDIANS. JUDGE 

PHELPS'  SPORTSMANSHIP. 

Among  the  early  settlers  who  came  to  Fulton  county  in 
the  old  pioneer  times  there  were  none  who  did  more  to  de- 
velop all  the  avenues  of  prosperity  and  to  exert  an  influence 

*Gen.  L.  F.  Ross  informs  us  that  three  block  houses  instead  of 
one  were  built — one  on  each  side  of  the  hotel  in  Havana,  and  one  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Illinois  river  and  north  of  Spoon  river  on  the  road  to 
Lewistown.  Gen.  Ross  says  the  people  of  Fulton  county  helped  to 
build  these  houses.  The  mouth  of  Spoon  river  was  then  directly  op- 
posite Havana,  and  the  ferrry  ran  from  Havana  to  the  upper  side  of 
Spoon  river.  This  large  hotel  stood  on  the  south  side  of  Market  street 
on  the  edge  of  a  high  bluff  overlooking  the  river.  The  bluff  has  been  cut 
down  and  the  site  of  the  hotel  is  now  vacant. 


42  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

for  the  good  of  society  than  Judge  Stephen  Phelps  and  his 
son-in-law,  William  Proctor.  They  came  from  the  state  of 
New  York  and  stopped  for  a  year  or  two  in  Sangamon 
county,  and  then  moved  to  Fulton  county,  settling  in 
Lewistown  in  1825.  Chapman's  History  of  Fulton 
County  says  they  came  in  1827,  but  it  is  an  error.  I  have 
in  my  possession  a  record  of  the  fact  that  cannot  be  gain- 
said. It  is  the  journal  book  kept  by  Norman  and  Ira 
Scovill  when  they  ran  the  ferry  over  the  Illinois  river  at 
Havana  for  rny  father  in  1825  and  1826.  It  was  the  only 
ferry  on  that  river  between  Peoria  and  Beardstown,  and 
all  the  earlier  pioneers  in  Fulton  county  came  over  the 
river  at  Havana.  The  Scovills  kept  the  ferry  on  shares, 
paying  my  father  one-half  of  all  sums  collected  on  ferriage. 
They  kept  a  very  accurate  journal,  with  full  particulars  of 
all  parties  ferried,  giving  dates,  names,  articles  ferried, 
etc.  So  it  is  that  by  referring  to  this  ancient 
journal  I  can  tell  the  exact  date  and  year  when 
many  of  the  old  settlers  came  to  the  county.  I  will  copy 
a  few  items  from  this  journal  to  show  the  reader  how  it 
was  kept: 

1825. 

Feb.  18.     Judge  Phelps,  ferriage  of  2  horses,  and 

wagon,  and  2  footmen $  0.75 

Feb.  23.     Judge  Phelps,  2  wagons,  4  horses,  2  cows 

and  1  footman 1.37^ 

July  27.     William     Proctor,   horses,   wagons    and 

footman 2.62^ 

This  shows  beyond  controversy,  I  think,  when  Judge 
Phelps  and  Mr.  Proctor  landed  in  Fulton  county.  Then 
I  find  these  items  for  the  same  year,  1825 :  "  Feb.  5, 
Elijah  Putman,  ferriage,  $2.00;'"  "July  7,  William 
Walters,  ferriage,  $2.00 ;"  "  July  22,  Keden  Putman, 
$2.00 ;"  "  July  26,  Jacob  Ellis,  $2.00 ;"  "  July  26,  Levi 
Ellis,  $2.50."  And  so  the  record  goes  on  during  1825  and 
1826.  It  would  seem  to  be  a  thoroughly  reliable — per- 
haps the  only  correct  record  of  the  dates  on  which  so  many 
famed  pioneers  came  to  Fulton  county. 


EARLY    P1ONEEBS    AND    EVENTS. 

When  Judge  Phelps  and  his  family  first  came  to  Lewis- 
town  they  lived  in  a  log  house  north  of  the  present  M.  E. 
church  and  west  of  T.  F.  Stafford's  store  and  residence. 
The  log  house  was  built  by  John  Jewell.  They  lived  there 
some  six  or  eight  months  and  then  moved  (in  182 5) to  the 
lots  now  occupied  by  the  Phelps-Proctor  store  and  Mrs. 
Mary  Phelps'  residence.  When  Judge  Phelps  bought  that 
property  there  had  been  erected  on  it  a  two-story  hewed  log 
house  by  John  Wolcott,  who  sold  the  place  to  him.  Judge 
Phelps  added  a  log  kitchen  and  had  the  whole  building 
lathed  and  plastered,  and  it  was  the  first  lathed  and  plas- 
tered house  in  Lewistown.  Judge  Phelps  also  bought  a  lot 
opposite  on  the  west  side  of  Main  street  and  there  built  a 
hewed  log  house  about  18x20  feet  for  a  store  house;  but 
two  or  three  years  later  they  built  a  frame  addition  to  their 
store,  and  then  gave  the  log  store-room  exclusively  for  a 
camping  place  for  the  Indians  who  came  long  distances  to 
trade  w7ith  them.  Sometimes  the  Indians  came  forty  or 
fifty  miles  with  their  pack  horses  laden  with  deer  skins 
and  furs,  and  they  often  would  remain  three  or  four  days 
to  do  their  trading  with  the  Phelpses,  who  had  opened  up 
the  first  store  in  Fulton  county.  They  were  very  fair  and 
honorable  in  all  their  dealings  with  the  Indians  and  whites, 
and  their  trade  increased  rapidly. 

Judge  Phelps  had  five  sons  and  one  daughter  who  were 
single  when  they  came  to  Lewistown,  his  oldest  daughter 
having  married  William  Proctor.  The  names  of  his  sons 
were  Alexis,  Myron,  Suinner,  William  and  Charles. 

Judge  Stephen  Phelps  was  a  man  about  five  feet  ten 
inches  high,  portly  built,  with  light  complexion,  and 
weighed  about  200  pounds.  His  son  William  at  fifty  years 
of  age  resembled  his  father  very  much.  The  judge  had  at 
some  period  of  his  life  received  an  injury  to  his  back  which 
hindered  him  very  materially  in  walking,  and  was  obliged, 
as  long  as  I  knew  him,  to  walk  quite  slowly  and  with  a  cane. 
But  aside  from  that  he  had  excellent  health.  He  was  kind 
and  courteous  and  sometimes  inclined  to  be  a  little  mirth- 
ful. His  wife  was  a  tall,  slender  lady  of  dark  complexion, 
weighing  about  120  pounds,  and  a  better  or  kinder-hearted 


44  EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

lady  I  do  not  believe  ever  lived  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 
She  was  good  and  kind  to  all,  and  everybody  loved  and 
honored  her.  I  have  often  heard  it  said  that  a  poor  man's 
child  or  an  Indian  papoose  never  went  from  Judge  Phelps' 
door  with  a  hungry  stomach  as  long  as  his  wife  lived. 

The  Phelpses  owed  a  good  deal  of  their  success  in  their 
Indian  trade  to  the  kind  and  friendly  treatment  the  In- 
dians received  at  the  hands  of  Judge  Phelps  and  his  wife. 
There  were  trading  posts  at  Peoria,  but  the  Indians  would 
come  from  the  vicinity  of  that  place  all  the  way  to  Lewis- 
town  to  trade  their  skins  and  furs  to  the  Phelpses,  for  they 
had  confidence  in  them,  and  was  afraid  to  trust  the  Peoria 
traders.  The  Phelpses  erected  a  press  for  the  purpose  of 
compressing  their  pelts  and  skins  into  small  packages,  for 
more  convenient  shipment  to  St.  Louis.  This  machine  was 
something  after  the  fashion  of  a  cotton  press,  but  instead  of 
using  screws,  wooden  wedges  were  employed  to  compress 
the  pelts.  The  compressed  package  would  be  about  2x3 
feet  in  size  and  would  weigh  from  100  to  150  pounds. 

The  judge's  youngest  son,  Charles,  was  near  my  own 
age,  and  as  boys  were  rather  scarce  at  that  time,  we  were 
a  great  deal  together.  We  both  had  our  shotguns  and  were 
both  very  fond  of  hunting  and  fishing ;  and  when  Saturday 
came  around  and  there  was  no  school,  we  would  strike  out 
for  a  hunt,  both  of  us  being  about  ten  years  of  age.  When 
Judge  Phelps  came  to  Lewistown  he  brought  with  him  a 
Dearborn  carriage  and  a  large  brown  horse  which  they 
called  "Prince."  The  judge  was  fond  of  driving,  and 
would  often  take  Charles  and  myself  in  his  Dearborn  and 
drive  us  to  where  we  would  find  good  hunting  and  fishing. 
One  of  our  favorite  resorts  was  the  spot  where 
Spudaway  creek  empties  into  Spoon  river.  There 
we  would  always  find  plenty  of  fish  and  game. 
The  judge  was  also  fond  of  hunting,  and  would 
take  his  gun  when  he  went  out,  and  would 
often  shoot  at  game  while  sitting  in  his  carriage 
as  he  drove  through  the  woods.  His  horse  was  very  gentle 
and  would  not  scare  at  the  firing  of  the  gun.  In  those  times 
there  were  a  great  many  pigeons  in  the  country,  and  the 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  45 

judge  delighted  very  much  in  killing  them.  One  morning 
when  I  was  at  the  judge's  house  he  had  just  come  in  from 
a  hunt  with  his  horse  and  Dearborn,  and  had  brought  home 
fourteen  pigeons  and  told  Charles  and  me  that  he  had  killed 
all  of  those  pigeons  with  a  rifle  ball  and  at  one  shot,  and  he 
wanted  us  boys  to  guess  how  he  had  done  it.  After  we  had 
made  a  good  many  guesses,  and  had  finally  given  up  the 
riddle,  he  then  told  us  how  the  remarkable  feat  was  accom- 
plished. 

There  are  some  other  things  that  I  would  like  to  men- 
tion in  regard  to  the  Phelps  and  Proctor  families,  but  will 
continue  the  story  in  my  next  letter.  I  will  also  give  the 
readers  a  week  in  which  to  guess  how  Judge  Phelps  killed 
fourteen  pigeons  with  one  shot  of  a  rifle  ball.  In  my  next 
I  will  explain  the  miracle. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HOW  THE  FOURTEEN  PIGEONS  WERE  KILLED  WITH  A  RIFLE- 
BALL    AT     ONE     SHOT. THE     FIRST     PIONEER     STORES. 

METHOD  OF  SHIPPING  CARGO  TO  ST.   LOUIS. THE   FIRST 

PENITENTIARY    IN    THE    STATE. CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

AND    BENEVOLENT    DEEDS    OF    MYRON    PHELPS    AND    WIL- 
LIAM  PROCTOR. 

In  my  last  I  promised  to  tell  how  it  happened  that 
Judge  Phelps  killed  fourteen  pigeons  with  a  rifle  ball  at 
one  shot.  It  happened  as  follows:  The  judge  had  gone 
out  one  morning  with  his  horse  Prince  and  his  Dearborn 
carriage  for  a  ride,  and  had  taken  his  shotgun  with  him 
as  was  his  custom.  After  firing  a  few  times  at  squirrels 
his  shot-bag  was  empty ;  but  he  found  in  his  pocket  a  rifle 
ball.  So  he  took  his  knife  and  cut  the  ball  up  into  small 
fragments  of  lead  and  loaded  his  shotgun  with  them.  He 
soon  came  to  a  threshing-floor  on  my  father's  farm,  where 
we  had  been  threshing  wheat  by  having  the  horses  trample 
it  out  on  the  ground.  A  large  flock  of  pigeons  had  settled 


46  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

down  upon  the  threshing-floor  to  pick  up  the  grains  of 
wheat  that  had  mingled  with  the  dirt;  and  when  these 
pigeons  rose  in  a  cloud  to  fly  away  the  judge  fired  at  them 
on  the  wing,  bringing  down  fourteen  pigeons  at  one  shot 
with  a  rifle  ball — cut  into  fragments. 

The  first  year  after  the  Phelpses  came  to  Lewistown  they 
rented  twenty  acres  of  my  father's  farm  and  put  it  in  corn. 
^Sumner  plowed  the  corn,  and  my  brother  Lewis  rode  the 
plow-horse,  while  I  rode  the  plow-horse  for  my  father's 
hired  man  in  the  adjoining  field.  It  is  a  singular  fact 
that  in  the  first  settlement  of  the  county  the  eastern  men 
had  to  have  a  boy  to  ride  the  horse  when  they  plowed  corn, 
while  the  southern  men  would  always  drive  their  plow- 
horse  with  a  single  line. 

After  the  Phelpses  had  been  in  business  about  two  years 
in  Lewistown,  Alexis  and  Sumner  established  a  trading- 
post  at  Yellow  Banks  (now  Oquawka)  on  the  Mississippi 
river,  and  had  a  large  trade  with  the  Indians  of  Iowa  and 
Illinois. 

William  Phelps  in  his  youthful  days  was  very  fond  of 
the  chase.  He  kept  a  pack  of  hounds  that  were  well 
trained,  and  during  the  summer  months  he  would  start 
out  in  the  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  daylight,  with  his 
horse  and  hounds  and  a  tin  horn  for  a  fox-hunt.  The 
deep  baying  of  his  dogs  and  the  blare  of  his  horn  could  in 
\  those  times  be  heard  for  miles  around  the  village.  There 
were  a  great  many  wolves,  foxes  and  wildcats  in  the  coun- 
try, and  he  would  occasionally  start  up  a  lynx  or  a  panther. 
These  animals  were  very  annoying  to  the  farmers,  as  they 
would  kill  a  great  deal  of  the  stock  and  carry  off  the  poul- 
try, and  William  and  his  hounds  contributed  very  materi- 
ally to  their  extermination.  The  first  enterprise  that 
William  engaged  in  after  leaving  home  was  to  set  up  an 
Indian  trading-post  on  Grand  Island,  ten  miles  below  Ha- 
vana in  the  Illinois  river.  After  carrying  on  this  trade 
about  one  year  he  was  married  to  Caroline  Kelsey  and 
struck  out  for  the  wilds  of  Iowa  where  he  was  engaged 
for  many  years  in  trading  with  the  Indians.  He  was  sub- 


EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  47 

sequently  engaged    in    steamboating    on    the    Mississippi 
river  for  many  years. 

The  next  store  that  was  opened  in  Lewistown  was  that 
of  Edward  Plude,  a  Frenchman,  and  Patrick  Hart,  an 
Irishman.  They  built  a  frame  storehouse  on  the  lot 
where  William  Proctor  lived  for  many  years,  on  Main 
street.  They  kept  the  store  for  about  two  years,  and  then 
my  father  bought  their  goods  and  moved  them  to  a  store 
he  had  built  on  the  Edwin  Harris  corner,  south  of  the 
court  house.  After  my  father  bought  their  goods,  Plude 
clerked  for  my  father,  while  Hart  clerked  for  the  Phelpses. 

A  man  named  Taylor  started  the  next  store.  He  came 
from  Philadelphia.  He  brought  on  a  large  stock  of 
Indian  goods  and  also  brought  with  him  from  St.  Louis 
two  Frenchmen  who  were  accomplished  Indian  interpre- 
ters, as  clerks.  Mr.  Taylor's  ambition  was  to  seize  upon 
the  splendid  Indian  trade  secured  by  the  Phelpses.  He 
sent  his  French  clerks  out  among  the  Indians  to  secure 
their  trade,  but  made  a  great  failure  of  it.  The  Phelpses 
had  dealt  so  honorably  with  the  Indians  and  white  people 
that  no  power  could  break  the  confidence  that  was  reposed 
in  them,  and  they  held  their  magnificent  Indian  trade 
until  the  Indians  were  driven  out  of  the  country.  Mr. 
Taylor  was  a  very  bright  and  enterprising  man,  and  while 
he  was  in  Lewistown  he  was  married  to  Miss  Ruth  Cad- 
wallader,  a  daughter  of  Jonathan  Cadwallader.  who  then 
lived  in  Lewistown.  She  was  a  grand,  noble  and  beauti- 
ful young  Quaker  lady.  I  happened  to  be  going  to  school 
in  Lewistown  at  the  time  and  boarded  with  Mr.  Taylor. 

The  Phelpses  had  a  keel  boat  built  for  their  own  tracfcT 
to  St.  Louis  which  was  run  by  ISTorman  Scovill  as  its  cap- 
tain. I  was  present  at  one  time  when  they  were  loading 
this  boat  at  Thompson's  lake.  The  cargo  consisted  of 
barels  of  pork  and  honey,  packages  of  deerskins  and  furs, 
barrels  of  dried  venison,  hams,  beeswax  and  tallow,  sacks 
of  pecans,  hickory  nuts,  ginseng  and  feathers,  and  dry 
hides.  In  an  ordinary  stage  of  water  it  took  about  four 
days  to  run  a  keel  boat  to  St.  Louis,  by  poles,  oars  and 


4:8  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

I  sails,  and  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  days  to  return.  1 
had  gone  to  St.  Louis  one  time  with  my  father  with  a 
drove  of  horses,  and  came  back  with  Xorman  Scovill  on 
his  keel  boat.  The  river  was  quite  high,  and  we  had  to 
do  a  great  deal  of  "cordeling"  and  ''bushwhacking,"*  and 
it  took  us  twenty-five  days  to  come  to  Havana.  I  remem- 
ber that  we  stopped  at  Alton  as  we  came  up  the  river,  and 
all  hands  went  up  town  to  see  the  new  penitentiary  that 
had  just  been  built.  There  were  only  two  prisoners  in 
the  penitentiary,  so  we  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the 
first  prisoners  ever  sent  to  a  penitentiary  in  the  State  of 
Illinois.  Before  that  time  the  penalty  for  the  commis- 
sion of  a  crime  was  whipping  on  the  bare  back. 

Mr.  Proctor  came  to  the  county  in  1825,  some  four, 
months  after  the  Phelpses  had  come,  and  lived  in  a  house 
near  to  where  the  Phelpses  had  stopped,  just  north  of 
present  Methodist  church.  He  lived  there  a  short  time 
while  building  a  two-story  log  house  on  the  hill  near  the 
site  of  his  tannery  (the  site  of  the  present  residence  of 
T.  B.  Harben).  He  carried  on  the  tan-yard  for  several 
years,  and  then  engaged  in  the  mercantile  business,  and 
by  fair  and  honorable  dealing  he  soon  built  up  an  exten- 
sive trade. 

There  have  been  but  few,  if  any,  of  the  early  settlers 
of  Fulton  county  that  have  done  as  much  to  advance  the 
true  interests  and  prosperity  of  the  country  as  Myron 
Phelps  and  William  Proctor.  Whenever  a  college, 
church,  railroad,  or  factory,  or  any  public  improvement 
was  wanting,  they  would  generally  head  the  list  with  the 
largest  contribution.  When  the  first  railroad  was  built 
through  Fulton  county  Myron  Phelps  gave  more  for  its 
construction  than  any  other  citizen.  I  happened  to  be 
one  of  the  directors  and  also  treasurer  of  the  road  for 
two  years  while  it  was  being  built,  and  therefore  know 

*  This  "cordeling"  and  "bushwhacking"  was  the  use  of  ropes  by 
which  the  boat  was  pulled  by  men  walking  along  the  shore,  or  by 
ropes  tied  to  trees  by  the  use  of  skiffs — the  boat  being  pulled  from  tree 
to  tree. 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  49 

the  facts  that  I  am  stating.  Then  the  grand  and  noble 
Christian  characters  of  these  men  were  a  blessing  not  only 
to  the  church  of  which  they  were  honored  members,  but 
to  the  whole  community  where  they  lived.  I  remember 
some  of  the  circumstances  that  attended  the  conversion 
of  Myron  Phelps.  I  was  then  living  in  Canton,  and  Rev. 
Robert  Stewart  was  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  at 
that  place.  The  Methodist  brethren  had  been  wonder- 
fully blest  in  some  of  the  campmeetings  they  had  been 
holding,  so  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stewart  and  the  officers  of  his 
church  borrowed  the  Methodist  camp  ground  and  all  its 
appurtenances,  and  concluded  they  would  try  it.  So 
they  sent  off  to  Springfield  and  got  Rev.  John  Hale,  the 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of  that  place, 
and  also  sent  to  Quincy  and  got  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  Xei- 
son  of  that  place  to  come  and  help  run  the  meeting. 
They  were  two  of  the  strongest  and  most  powerful 
preachers  in  the  state.  The  campmeeting  lasted  for 
eight  days,  and  there  were  150  or  200  conversions.  A 
great  many  Lewistown  people  attended  the  campmeeting. 
My  mother  had  tent  on  the  ground,  and  I  remember  that 
old  Dr.  Rice  and  William  Proctor  were  there  during  the 
entire  eight  days,  and  took  a  very  active  part  in  the  meet- 
ings. When  the  meeting  closed  Mr.  Proctor  took  Dr. 
ISTelson  home  with  him  and  he  held  several  meetings  at 
Lewistown.  The  spirit  and  influence  of  that  campmeet- 
ing seemed  to  pervade  all  Fulton  county.  Dr.  Nelson 
visited  Myron  Phelps  at  his  home,  and  it  was  through 
his  mighty  influence  that  he  was  converted  and  became 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church.  I  often  heard  it 
remarked  that  when  Myron  Phelps  was  converted  that 
"he  was  converted  soul,  body,  pocketbook  and  all,"  for  he 
was  always  very  liberal  and  benevolent  in  giving  to  all 
worthy  objects.  I  have  understood  that  Myron  Phelps 
was  in  the  habit  of  giving  $1,000  and  Mr.  Proctor  $500 
every  year  for  missionary  purposes,  besides  other  munifi- 
cent gifts.  I  again  recall  the  time  when  at  Vermont  a 
few  of  us  were  struggling  to  build  a  small  church  how  Mr. 


50  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

Proctor  came  to  our  rescue  and  gave  us  $100  to  buy  the 
lot  on  which  that  Presbyterian  church  still  stands. 

These  men  carried  their  religion  with  them  in  all  their 
business  transactions.  Their  influence  was  felt  for  good 
all  through  this  pioneer  country.  In  the  heavenly  world 
alone  will  be  revealed  the  good  they  accomplished.  I 
have  been  informed  that  Myron  Phelps  was  in  the  habit 
of  always  closing  his  store  during  the  hour  of  Wednesday 
evening  prayer  meeting  so  that  his  hands  could  attend  the 
meeting,  and  if  there  were  any  customers  in  the  store  at 
the  time  they  were  invited  to  go  along.  I  am  also  told 
that  he  never  went  to  the  polls  to  vote  that  he  did  not  take 
off  his  hat  and  cast  his  ballot  with  as  much  conscientious 
solemnity  as  he  would  perform  any  other  religious  duty. 


CHAPTEK  XIII. 

THE     BIG     SNOW     OF     1830-31     AND     TERRIBLE     SUFFERING 

THEREFROM. DESCRIPTION       OF       INDIAN       WIGWAM. 

CHIEF  RACCOON  AND  MY  "GOOD  LUCK." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  and  startling  events  that 
ever  took  place  in  the  early  history  of  Fulton  county  and 
Illinois  was  the  big  snow  that  fell  in  the  winter  of  1830- 
'31.  Perhaps  no  event  has  ever  happened  in  the  history  of 
this  western  country  since  its  settlement  by  white  men  that 
has  caused  so  much  suffering  among  the  people  and  animals 
as  did  the  "deep  snow." 

The  old  settlers  will  remember  many  things  about  it, 
but  another  generation  has  come  on  the  stage  of  action  since 
then,  and  they  may  be  interested  in  the  history  of  that 
event  and  some  of  the  circumstances  attending  that  dread- 
ful, long,  cold  winter. 

The  snow  commenced  falling  the  latter  part  of  December 
and  continued  off  and  on  for  about  a.  month,  and  when  it 
ceased  falling  the  snow  in  the  timber,  where  it  did  not 
drift,  was  about  three  feet  and  six  inches  on  the  level,  and 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  51 

in  the  prairies  along  the  fences  and  in  the  hollows,  where 
it  had  drifted,  it  was  ten  arid  fifteen  feet  deep.  The  snow 
lay  on  the  ground  about  three  months  and  during  that  time 
the  weather  was  intensely  cold.  During  many  days  the 
mercury  ran  from  ten  to  twenty  degrees  below  zero.  Be- 
fore that  time  the  winters  had  been  so  mild  and  with  so  lit- 
tle snow  that  stock  seldom  had  to  be  fed  more  than  from 
four  to  six  weeks  during  the  entire  winter,  and  wild  hogs 
kept  in  fairly  good  order  from  off  the  mast  (acorns).  Dur- 
ing the  whole  winter  the  farmers  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
gathering  only  what  corn  they  needed  to  feed  their  stock  in 
the  fore  part  of  the  winter,  and  the  consequence  was  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  crop  was  in  the  field  when  the  deep 
snow  came.  The  farmers  had  made  no  provisions  for  such 
a  catastrophe  and  there  was  great  suffering  among  the  peo- 
ple. A  great  deal  of  their  stock  died,  while  the  wild  hogs, 
deer  and  other  wild  animals  in  the  forests  were  nearly 
swept  out  of  existence.  The  Indians  came  in  great  numbers 
from  the  high  lands  and  settled  on  the  Illinois  and  Spoon 
river  bottoms.  They  brought  with  them  their  droves  of 
horses  and  ponies,  and  kept  them  from  starving  by  chop- 
ping down  small  trees  of  soft  wood,  such  as  basswood,  cot- 
toriwood,  elm  and  soft  maple.  Their  ponies  would  not 
only  browse  upon  the  limbs  and  bark  of  the  trees,  but  would 
frequently  eat  up  the  whole  tree.  So  the  Indians  got  their 
ponies  through  the  winter  with  very  little  loss. 

The  winter  of  the  deep  snow  was  in  many  ways  favorable 
to  the  Indians.  The  snow  storm  drove  great  herds  of  deer 
from  the  prairies  and  hill  country  to  the  river  bottoms,  and 
the  Indians  killed  great  numbers  of  them.  The  deep  snow 
was  but  little  impediment  to  the  Indians  in  travelling,  for 
they  had  snow  shoes  with  which  they  could  walk  or  run 
over  the  snow  as  well,  almost,  as  the  whites  could  go  over 
the  bare  ground.  The  snow  shoe  was  made  by  bending  a 
hickory  stick  in  very  much  the  shape  of  an  ox-yoke ;  the  bot- 
tom of  the  bow  would  be  covered  with  strips  of  deer  skin  to 
be  tied  firmly  onto  the  ankles  and  feet.  These  shoes  were 
about  as  heavy  as  heavy  boots.  When  an  Indian  in  snow 
shoes  got  after  a  deer  that  had  to  travel  in  snow  three  and 


52  EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

one-half  feet  deep,  the  Indian  was  pretty  sure  to  get  the 
deer  and  cut  his  throat.  The  snow  was  also  a  great  ad- 
vantage to  the  Indians  in  hunting  the  otter,  mink  and 
muskrat.  These  animals  would  come  out  of  their  dens  and 
leave  their  tracks  or  trails  in  the  snow,  and  the  Indians 
could  easily  track  them,  when  they  could  be  caught.  And 
it  was  the  same  with  the  fox  and  raccoon ;  they  could  be 
tracked  to  their  holes  in  the  hills  or  in  trees,  when  the  In- 
dians would  spear  them  out  of  their  holes. 

I  have  heard  my  father  say  that  he  had  a  bigger  trade 
with  the  Indians  than  in  any  winter  before  or  after.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  the  same  was  true  of  the  Phelpses. 

One  of  the  prominent  camping  places  selected  by  the  In- 
dians during  that  winter  was  on  Spoon  river  about  two  miles 
below  old  Waterf ord.  They  had  there  erected  some  twenty 
wigwams.  The  young  readers  of  The  Democrat  may  be 
interested  in  learning  how  these  wigwams  were  built.  A 
common  sized  wigwam  for  a  family  of  eight  or  ten  persons 
would  be  about  12x16  feet  in  size.  Small  saplings  would 
be  cut  and  set  firmly  in  the  ground,  big  ends  down,  in  rows 
three  feet  apart,  all  round  the  plat  (12x16  feet)  to  be  en- 
closed. Then  the  limber  tops  of  the  poles  would  be  brought 
together  and  fastened  with  hickory  wyths  or  strips  of 
leather.  Then  small  poles  would  be  tied  lengthwise  to  the 
saplings,  making  a  cross-barred  and  solid  frame.  The 
whole  would  then  be  covered  with  a  heavy  matting  that 
had  been  woven  by  the  squaws  from  the  coarse  swamp  grass 
yet  to  be  found  on  the  bottom  lands.  This  completed  the 
wigwam,  and  it  had  the  shape  of  a  hay  stack.  An  opening 
was  left  as  a  door  way  and  this  was  protected  by  a  blanket. 
A  pit  2x3  feet  in  size  and  eight  or  ten  inches  deep  would 
be  dug  in  the  center  under  the  wigwam  for  a  fire-place,  and 
there  was  an  opening  at  the  top  for  the  smoke  to  pass 
through.  The  Indians  were  quite  comfortable  in  these 
wigwams,  with  their  blankets  and  furs,  in  the  coldest 
weather.  They  never  used  bedsteads,  tables  or  chairs. 
They  usually  sat  on  packages  of  skins  or  sacks  of  feathers. 
The  whole  family  usually  took  their  meals  out  of  a  wooden 


EARLY    PIONEEES    AND    EVENTS.  53 

tray,  using  knives  and  wooden  spoons,  but  no  forks.     In 
cold  weather  they  kept  their  fires  burning  night  and  day. 

Among  the  Indians  that  camped  at  this  place  was  a  chief 
named  Osopin  (in  English,  Raccoon).  He  had  traded 
with  my  father  when  he  kept  store  in  Lewistown,  and  also 
after  he  started  a  store  in  Havana.  He  would  often  buy 
goods  on  credit,  and  was  always  punctual  to  pay  for  them 
at  the  time  agreed  upon.  My  father  entered  his  name  on 
the  ledger,  "Raccoon  Osopin,"  which  was  both  his  English 
and  Indian  names.  He  was.  a  good  friend  to  my  father, 
and  brought  many  Indians  to  trade  with  him.  My  father 
often  made  Raccoon  handsome  presents.  I  remember  that 
he  once  brought  him  from  St.  Louis  a  tomahawk  with  the 
handle  striped  off  in  red,  white  and  blue,  with  an  iron  pipe 
on  the  hammer  part  of  the  tomahawk,  there  being  an  open- 
ing through  the  handle,  so  the  chief  could  use  his  beautiful 
tomahawk  as  a  pipe  in  which  to  smoke  his  tobacco.  Rac- 
coon was  greatly  pleased  with  this  princely  gift. 

I  often  helped  my  father  in  his  Havana  store  while  he 
was  trading  with  the  Indians,  and  so  became  very  well  ac- 
quainted with  Raccoon  and  his  boys.  They  took  quite  a 
liking  to  me  and  had  often  asked  me  to  go  to  their  wigwam 
and  take  a  hunt  with  them.  My  father  had  brought  a 
small  Indian  pony  for  me  to  ride  when  I  went  hunting.  So 
when  the  deep  snow  had  been  sufficiently  beaten  down  into 
a  road  between  Lewistown  and  Havana,  I  started  one  day 
with  my  pony  and  gun  for  the  Indian  camp  on  Spoon  river. 
When  I  got  there  I  found  that  the  young  Indians  had  all 
gone  hunting,  and  only  Raccoon  was  left  to  take  care  of 
the  wigwam.  While  I  was  warming  at  the  fire  he  pro- 
duced a  buckskin  roll  of  sinews  that  had  been  taken  out  of 
the  legs  of  deer.  When  an  Indian  kills  a  deer  he  always 
takes  the  sinews  out  of  its  legs  to  use  in  place  of  thread  in 
sewing  their  moccasins,  mittens,  etc. ;  and  they  also  use 
these  sinews  about  their  persons  as  charms,  or  for  "good 
luck,"  as  they  call  it.  So  Raccoon  tied  a  bit  of  sinew  in  the 
buttonhole  of  my  vest.  He  said  it  would  insure  me  good 
luck,  and  that  I  would  become  a  brave  hunter.  After  stay- 
ing a  couple  of  hours  I  started  back  home  on  my  pony.  I 


54  EARLY    PIONEEES    AND    EVENTS. 

had  not  gone  over  a  mile  when  I  saw  a  large  deer  standing 
on  the  ice  in  a  little  lake  near  the  road.  He  was  browsing 
from  bushes,  and  did  not  see  me.  There  was  a  large  tree 
about  eighty  yards  from  the  deer.  I  tied  my  pony  to  a 
tree  and  with  my  gun  in  hand  crept  silently  toward  the 
tree,  keeping  it  between  me  and  the  deer.  Then  I  rested 
my  gun  against  the  tree,  took  good  aim  and  fired.  The 
deer  fell,  but  immediately  jumped  up  and  commenced  to 
flounder  around  in  the  deep  snow.  I  saw  that  I  had  only 
wounded  him,  and  was  terribly  afraid  that  he  would  get 
away.  I  never  thought  of  reloading  my  gun  and  shooting 
him  again,  as  I  should  have  done,  but  left  my  gun  at  the 
tree,  and  with  my  knife  in  my  hand  ran  as  fast  as  I  could 
to  the  deer.  It  was  jumping  around  in  the  deep  snow,  and 
I  slipped  up  behind  it  and  cut  its  ham-strings,  which  stop- 
ped its  jumping.  It  then  settled  down  in  the  snow,  and  I 
got  it  by  the  ears  and  cut  its  throat.  It  was 
soon  dead.  I  little  realized  the  great  danger  I 
had  encountered  in  attacking  a  wounded  deer,  but 
found  out,  after  I  got  older,  from  talks  with  old 
deer  hunters,  that  a  wounded  deer  was  the  most  dangerous 
animal  that  runs  in  the  woods.  I  was  then  but  a  little  past 
thirteen  years  old,  and  small  of  my  age,  and  if  the  deer  had 
turned  upon  me  he  would  have  stamped  me  to  death.  The 
next  problem  I  had  to  solve  was  how  to  get  my  deer  home, 
for  if  I  left  him  there  the  wolves  would  eat  him  before 
morning.  I  was  three  miles  from  home,  about  north  of 
what  is  called  California  Bend  in  Spoon  river.  It  was 
about  February  1st,  and  the  weather  was  terribly  cold. 
But  I  took  my  pony  and  gun  to  where  the  deer  was  lying. 
I  took  my  saddle  girth  and  placed  it  around  the  pony's 
breast  instead  of  under  his  belly,  and  with  the  halter  strap 
hitched  the  deer  to  the  stirrups.  It  made  a  very  good 
harness.  I  then  got  on  my  pony  with  my  gun  and  started 
for  Havana.  It  was  a  hard  pull  for  my  little  pony  to  get 
the  deer  out  of  the  deep  snow,  but  when  we  got  onto  the 
beaten  track  it  was  easy  sledding.  I  crossed  the  Illinois 
river  on  the  ice  and  got  home  a  little  after  dark.  It  was 
the  first  deer  I  ever  killed,  and  I  was  very  proud  of  my 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  55 

success.  When  Raccoon  came  in,  a  few  days  later,  and  I 
told  him  of  my  success,  he  was  much  pleased ;  he  patted  me 
on  the  back  and  said  I  would  be  a  great  hunter.  Then  he 
pointed  to  the  bit  of  sinew  he  had  tied  in  my  button-hole, 
saying  it  was  the  cause  of  my  good  luck. 

The  Pottowatomie  Indians  that  lived  about  Lewistown 
and  Havana  were  soon  moved  to  an  Indian  reservation  in 
Kansas  by  the  government.  During  Johnson's  adminis- 
tration, thirty  years  later,  word  was  sent  to  Washington 
that  some  of  those  Indians  were  in  a  starving  condition. 
My  brother  Lewis,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  was  ap- 
pointed with  two  other  members  of  Congress  to  go  to  the 
reservation  to  investigate  the  matter.  Arrived  there  he 
found  a  good  many  Indians  he  had  known  in  Fulton  coun- 
ty, and  among  them  our  old  friend  Raccoon.  There  was 
great  rejoicing  among  those  Indians  when  they  found  out 
who  my  brother  was,  and  they  had  a  doleful  story  to  tell 
him  of  the  hard  treatment  they  had  received  after  they  had 
been  driven  from  their  good  hunting  grounds  on  Spoon 
river. 

I  shall  have  more  to  say  of  these  Indians  in  a  future 
letter. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MEETING  OF  BROTHER  LEWIS  AND  CHIEF  RACCOON  IN  IN- 
DIAN    RESERVATION. INDIAN     TRAITS. TRAGEDY     IN 

DEAN'S    SETTLEMENT. 

In  my  last  letter  I  spoke  of  the  visit  made  by  a  Con- 
gressional committee,  including  my  brother  Lewis,  to  the 
Indian  reservation  in  Kansas,  where  it  was  reported  that 
great  suffering  existed  among  the  Indians.  As  there 
'were  no  railroads,  these  members  of  Congress  had  to  make 
the  trip  on  horseback.  They  passed  through  many  Indian 
reservations  and  got  all  the  information  they  could  from 
the  Indians,  from  their  agents,  and  from  missionaries 


56  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

and  school  teachers  who  located  among  them.  They 
found  that  some  of  the  tribes  were  in  a  most  deplorable 
condition  and  on  the  verge  of  starvation.  The  Pottowat- 
omie  Indians  that  had  been  driven  from  the  Lewistown 
and  Havana  country  had  been  placed  upon  an  Indian 
reservation  in  Kansas  and  were  drawing  a  small  annuity 
from  the  government,  as  an  alleged  compensation  for  the 
lands  that  had  been  taken  from  them  in  Fulton  county, 
but  it  was  not  half  enough  for  their  support.  They  had 
undertaken  to  farm  the  land  in  Kansas,  but  the  locusts, 
grasshoppers  and  hot  winds  of  that  country  had  ruined 
their  crops.  To  make  it  still  worse  for  them,  the  govern- 
ment had  taken  away  their  guns,  so  they  had  to  hunt  game 
with  their  bows  and  arrows. 

As  I  have  said,  my  brother  Lewis  found  many  Indians 
that  he  had  formerly  known  at  Lewistown  and  Havana, 
and  who  had  for  years  traded  with  my  father  and  the 
Phelpses.  These  Indians  were  wild  with  delight  to  meet 
him,  and  could  only  express  their  joy  by  shaking  his 
hands  and  hugging  him.  He  had  there  met  the  old  chief, 
Raccoon,  who  was  delighted  to  see  him.  Raccoon  in- 
quired about  his  father  and  Judge  Phelps,  and  when 
Lewis  told  him  that  they  were  both  dead  the  tears  rolled 
down  the  swarthy  face  of  the  old  chief,  and  he  said, 
"They  Avere  good  men  to  the  Indians."  The  missionaries 
at  the  agency  told  Lewis  that  Raccoon  had  been  converted 
and  had  joined  the  church  with  several  of  his  family, 
and  that  he  took  an  active  part  in  carrying  on  the  schools 
and  in  missionary  work  among  the  Indians. 

Judge  Phelps  and  my  father  had  always  been  good 
friends  to  the  Indians.  They  believed  that  it  was  the 
safest  and  best  policy  to  treat  them  as  friends,  although 
they  would  sometimes  lose  a  little  by  their  stealing,  for 
it  was  as  natural  for  the  Indians  to  steal  as  it  was  for  the 
smoke  to  go  upwards.  But  all  that  they  would  steal 
amounted  to  but  very  little.  In  the  early  settlement  of  the 
county  there  came  a  good  many  settlers  from  the  southern 
states,  many  of  whom  had  had  relatives  and  friends  massa- 
cred bv  the  Indians  of  the  South,  and  these  southerners 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  57 

as  a  rule  looked  upon  these  Indians  as  their  natural  enemy 
— that  they  had  no  rights  that  a  white  man  was  bound  to 
respect.  They  believed  that  "the  only  good  Indian  was 
a  dead  Indian/'  and  they  would  often  get  into  trouble 
with  them.  The  hogs  of  the  white  men  would  run  in  the 
woods,  and  the  Indian  dogs  would  chase  and  worry  them ; 
and  then  the  white  men  would  shoot  their  dogs,  and  then 
the  Indians  would  shoot  their  dogs  and  sometimes  their 
hogs  to  get  even  with  them.  Sometimes  a  white  man 
would  have  something  stolen  from  his  place,  and  the 
Indians  would  always  be  accused  of  the  theft;  and  then 
the  first  Indians  they  could  find  would  be  most  cruelly 
whipped  with  hickory  poles,  when  in  all  probability  the 
Indians  knew  nothing  about  the  stealing.  The  outraged 
Indians  would  then  go  to  Judge  Phelps  or  my  father  and 
tell  them  how  they  had  been  abused,  and  would  always 
get  their  sympathy  when  they  thought  they  were  wrong- 
fully treated.  These  men  would  often  remonstrate  very 
seriously  with  these  settlers  for  their  inhuman  treatment 
of  these  Indians. 

I  can  remember  some  of  the  circumstances  of  a  tragedy 
that  took  place  in  the  southeast  part  of  the  county  in  what 
was  called  "  Dean's  Settlement."  Among  the  settlers 
there  was  a  man  named  William  Richardson.  He  was  a 
large,  stout  man,  and  was  a  bitter  enemy  to  the  Indians. 
He  would  often  catch  them  and  cruelly  whip  them  with- 
out just  cause,  and  would  kill  their  dogs  whenever  he 
came  across  them.  One  day  when  he  was  out  in  the 
woods  hunting  he  came  across  one  of  his  hogs  that  had 
just  been  killed  in  the  woods.  He  told  some  of  his 
neighbors  he  knew  the  Indians  had  killed  his  hog,  and  he 
was  going  to  have  his  revenge.  A  day  or  two  later  a  dead 
Indian  was  found  propped  up,  sitting  on  the  dead  hog. 
There  were  a  good  many  Indians  at  the  time  living  on 
Grand  Island  in  the  Illinios  river,  opposite  the  Dean 
Settlement,  and  they  were  informed  about  the  dead 
Indian  and  came  arid  took  him  away  and  buried  him. 
They  were  terribly  incensed  about  the  murder  and 


58  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

claimed  that  the  Indian  was  out  hunting  when  he  was 
shot  down  in  cold  blood  and  that  he  had  never  killed  a 
hog,  and  had  never  done  the  white  people  an  injury. 
There  was  little  doubt  among  the  settlers  that  Richardson 
had  brutally  shot  down  the  Indian  from  ambush  and  had 
brought  his  body  and  placed  it  on  the  hog  to  strike  terror 
to  them;  that  if  they  killed  hogs  their  lives  would  have 
to  pay  the  penalty.  The  Indians  would  have  in  all  prob- 
ability taken  vengeance  on  Richardson  but  for  another 
tragedy  which  soon  took  place. 

Richardson  had  a  neighbor  named  Bassett  who  lived 
about  a  mile  away  who  believed  that  Richardson  was  too 
friendly  with  his  wife.  He  went  from  home  one  time 
and  came  back  unexpectedly  very  early  in  the  morning; 
and  as  he  came  near  his  home  he  saw  Richardson  coming 
out  and  starting  for  his  home.  Bassett  went  into  his 
house,  took  down  his  rifle,  and  took  a  near  cut  across  the 
woods  for  Richardson's  house,  and  got  ahead  of  him  and 
secreted  himself  behind  a  tree,  and  as  Richardson  came 
along  he  shot  him  dead  in  his  tracks. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  AND  HIS  SQUAWS. THE  INDIANS^  PARADISE. 

—INDIAN     TRAFFIC     IN     GINSENG    AND     WILD     POTATOES,, 
AND  THEIR  EXTERMINATION  BY  WILD  HOGS. 

I  will  give  a  short  sketch  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
Indian  families  that  ever  lived  in  Fulton  county.  I  am 
sure  no  other  family  of  Indians  ever  caused  so  much 
gossip  and  so  much  bitter  denunciation  from  the  female 
part  of  the  community,  both  white  women  and  squaws, 
as  did  the  conduct  of  an  Indian  chief  called  "Captain 
John."  He  was  a  large,  fine-looking  Indian  about  six 
feet,  four  inches  tall,  and  was  one  of  the  most  prominent 
chiefs  in  the  Pottowatomie  tribe.  It  was  told  by  some 
of  the  other  Indians  who  had  known  him  before  he  came 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  59 

to  Fulton  county  that  he  had  taken  the  side  of  the  British 
against  the  Americans  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  that  it  was 
while  he  was  amongst  the  British  soldiers  that  he  obtained 
the  name  of  "Captain  John."  lie  and  his  squaw  had 
learned  to  speak  some  words  in  the  English  language. 
The  first  we  knew  about  them  they  had  their  wigwam  on 
Big  Creek  near  the  road  that  ran  from  Lewistown  to 
Totten's  Prairie  (now  Smithfield).  Their  wigwam  was 
about  three  miles  northwest  of  Lewistown  close  by  the 
dismantled  little  village  of  Milton.  It  appeared  from 
what  the  Indians  told  that  "Captain  John"  had  at  one 
time  became  jealous  of  his  squaw,  and  in  his  wrath,  while 
under  the  influence  of  bad  whisky,  had  bitten  off  her 
nose.  She  wore  a  buckskin  patch  over  it,  and  it  gave 
her  a  most  hideous  appearance.  To  add  insult  to  injury, 
"Captain  John"  took  to  himself  two  young  wives.  They 
were  handsome  young  squaws  about  twenty-two  and 
twenty-four  years  old,  and  he  took  a  god  deal  of  pride 
in  dressing  them  up  in  the  most  gay  and  gorgeous  style. 
~No  squaws  in  all  that  part  of  the  country  were  able  to 
dress  as  fine  as  "Captain  John's"  young  squaws.  They 
had  long  black  hair  which  they  braided  and  left  to  hang 
gracefully  over  their  shoulders,  with  the  ends  tied  in  bows 
of  gay  ribbon.  They  wore  large  silver  earrings,  and  four 
or  five  strands  of  large  glass  beads  around  their  necks. 
Their  dresses  were  of  a  gay  color  with  a  row  of  silver 
brooches  down  the  front.  Their  skirts  were  of  the  finest 
quality  of  blue  cloth.  They  wore  bands  of  silver  clasped 
on  their  wrists,  and  their  fingers  were  decorated  with 
many  rings.  Their  moccasins  were  ornamented  with 
beads  and  fine  needlework.  "Captain  John"  appeared  to 
be  very  proud  of  his  young  squaws.  But  the  lot  of  the 
old  squaw  was  a  hard  and  bitter  one.  She  went  poorly 
dressed,  much  below  the  average  of  other  squaws  that 
came  to  town.  "Captain  John"  and  his  three  squaws  were 
in  the  habit  of  coming  to  town  about  once  every  week  to 
trade  at  Phelps'  store,  and  they  always  passed  by  nrv 
father's  house.  "Captain  John"  always  appeared  at  the 


60  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

head  of  the  procession,  a  fine  and  stately  figure;  next 
came  his  two  young  squaws  in  all  their  finery,  and  the 
poor  old  squaw  brought  up  the  rear  with  a  package  of 
peltry  strapped  across  her  shoulders  and  bending  pitifully 
under  its  weight.  She  was  compelled  to  do  all  the  hard 
work.  The  white  women  and  some  of  the  squaws  were 
so  indignant  at  "Captain  John"  and  his  two  young  squaws 
for  the  way  they  treated  the  old  squaw  that  they  would 
have  liked  very  much  to  have  mobbed  all  three  of  them, 
but  "Captain  John"  was  a  big  chief,  and  they  were 
afraid  of  him.  But  as  the  country  began  to  settle 
up  with  white  men  the  story  became  current  among  them 
that  "Captain  John"  had  been  identified  with  the  British 
army,  and  fought  against  the  Americans  in  the  war  of 
1812,  and  also  that  the  British  officers  had  paid  a  bounty 
to  the  Indians  for  American  scalps ;  and  they  were  disposed 
to  believe  that  all  the  money  "Captain  John"  was  spending 
in  dressing  his  young  wives  so  gorgeously  had  not  been  ob- 
tained by  selling  deer-*kins  and  furs,  but  that  it  had  been 
paid  to  him  for  his  services  against  the  Americans,  and  per- 
haps for  some  of  the  scalps  of  their  white  brethren.  Add- 
ing these  things  to  the  cruel  treatment  of  the  old  squaw,  of 
which  everybody  was  cognizant,  a  very  bitter  feeling  was 
aroused  against  him  among  the  men  as  well  as  amongst  the 
women.  It  was  very  seldom  that  an  Indian  had  more  than 
one  squaw.  I  have  known  one  or  two  instances  where  an 
Indian  had  one  or  two  squaws,  but  never  before  where 
they  had  as  many  as  three.  So  bitter  was  the  life  of  this 
poor  old  squaw  that  she  often  wished  that  she  could  leave 
this  cruel  world  and  go  to  the  Indian's  happy  hunting 
ground  where  she  would  be  no  longer  tormented  with  rival 
wives  and  a  cruel  husband.  The  only  relief  the  poor  old 
thing  had  from  her  sorrows  was  to  drown  them  in  whisky. 
She  had  no  trouble  to  find  some  person  who  would  let  her 
have  whisky,  for  it  was  the  general  impression  that  the  only 
comfort  she  ever  had  was  when  she  was  hilariously  drunk. 
In  that  condition  she  would  tell  in  broken  English  the  story 
of  her  hard  lot — what  a  bad  Indian  "Captain  John"  was, 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  61 

what  a  good  squaw  she  had  always  been,  how  "Captain 
John"  had  got  drunk  and  bit  off  her  nose,  that  his  two 
young  squaws  were  no  good,  that  they  would  not  work,  and 
that  she  had  all  the  work  to  do,  etc.,  etc. 

So  it  came  about  that  "Captain  John"  found  that  it  was 
not  safe  for  him  to  stay  in  that  part  of  the  country  any 
longer ;  and  he  packed  his  goods  on  some  ponies  and  with 
his  three  squaws  moved  up  to  the  Rock  river  country  among 
the  Black  Hawk  tribe.  I  never  heard  from  "Captain 
John"  and  his  squaws  after  that  time. 

It  is  probable  that  there  is  no  other  country  in  the 
United  States  in  which  the  Indians  so  delighted  to  live  and 
which  they  were  so  sorry  to  leave  as  the  beautiful  hunting 
grounds  embraced  in  the  counties  of  Eulton,  Schuyler  and 
Mason.  It  was  a  perfect  paradise  for  them.  They  could 
find  about  everything  that  their  hearts  could  desire,  and  it 
was  about  as  good  a  place  for  the  poor  white  man  as  it  was 
for  the  Indian.  The  deer  roamed  through  the  country  by 
the  thousands.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  I  have 
seen  500  deer  in  the  woods  and  prairies  in  a  single  day. 
Every  other  kind  of  game  and  fowl  was  abundant,  and  the 
rivers  and  small  streams  were  full  of  fish.  The  bee  trees 
were  so  numerous  that  white  settlers  and  Indians  could  get 
all  the  honey  they  wanted,  and  there  were  groves  of  sugar 
trees  all  over  the  country  from  which  an  abundance  of 
maple  sugar  was  made.  The  wild  fruit  was  equally  won- 
derful, there  being  no  limit  to  the  plums,  crabapples, 
grapes,  black  and  redhaws,  gooseberries,  blackberries,  dew- 
berries and  strawberries.  Acres  upon  acres  of  wild  onions 
could  be  found  in  the  woods,  and  wild  potatoes  in  great 
abundance.  Potato  creek,  south  of  Spoon  river,  received 
its  name  from  the  great  abundance  of  wild  potatoes  that 
grew  on  its  bank.  The  hard  freezing  in  the  winter  did  not 
affect  them  and  they  were  about  as  good  to  eat  as  Irish  po- 
tatoes. There  was  another  valuable  plant  that  grew  in  the 
woods,  called  ginseng.  The  roots  resembled  very  much  the 
parsnips  familiar  in  our  gardens.  Ginseng  grew  in  the 
woods  in  the  rich  loam,  and  great  quantities  of  it  would  be 
dug  and  sold  to  the  merchants,  who  would  sack  it  and  send 


62  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

it  to  St.  Louis.  It  was  used  for  medical  purposes  and 
brought  a  good  price.  The  Indians  had  a  large  traffic  in 
digging  ginseng  and  wild  potatoes,  which  they  sold  to  the 
merchants  and  settlers.  But  when  the  hogs  became  very 
numerous  in  the  woods,  they  soon  exterminated  both  the 
ginseng  and  the  wild  potatoes. 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

APPEARANCE    OF    THE     COUNTRY    WHEN    EARLY    SETTLERS 

ARRIVED. EXTENSIVE     AND     BEAUTIFUL     PRAIRIES. MY 

EXPERIENCE  IN  HAULING  HAY. DISCOVERY  OF  COAL  BY 

MR.      GARDINER. FIRST      BANKING     ESTABLISHMENT      IN 

FULTON    COUNTY. 

I  have  been  asked  by  some  of  my  old  friends  in  Fulton 
county  to  tell  something  about  how  the  country  looked 
when  the  first  settlers  arrived  in  it,  about  the  groves,  the 
prairies,  the  watercourses  and  the  kinds  of  wild  animals 
found  in  tho  country.  So  I  will  endeavor 'to  answer  some 
of  these  questions. 

The  lace  of  the  country  has  undergone  a  wonderful 
change  in  appearance,  aside  from  the  great  improvements 
that  have  been  made.  The  beautiful  groves  of  timber  then 
standing  unmarred  by  the  woodman's  ax  have  been  cleared 
away;  and  the  handsome  prairies,  that  were  then  covered 
with  high  grass  and  beautiful  flowers,  have  been  broken  up, 
so  it  is  hard  to  tell  which  was  timber  and  which  was  prairie 
land.  There  is  one  thing  that  has  altered  the  looks  of  the 
country  very  much  since  it  was  first  settled,  and  that  is  the 
extensive  growth  of  young  timber  and  brush,  unknown  in 
pioneer  times.  Before  the  county  was  settled  by  white  peo- 
ple, prairie  fires  were  permitted  to  sweep  through  the  coun- 
try every  year,  and  they  destroyed  what  is  now  called  "bar- 
rens" and  underbrush.  The  smooth  prairies  came  square 
up  to  the  distinct  groves  of  large  timber.  In  those  days  a 
man  traveling  through  Table  Grove,  and  many  of  the  other 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  63 

groves  in  the  county,  could  see  a  deer  500  or  600  yards 
away  in  the  prairie ;  but  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  later  a 
deer  could  not  be  seen  a  distance  of  fifty  yards  because  of 
the  growth  of  the  brush  and  young  timber.  There  was  no 
such  land  in  the  county  as  that  now  called  "barrens."  The 
groves  were  very  beautiful  before  any  of  the  timber  had 
been  cut,  and  before  there  was  any  undergrowth.  Table 
Grove  was  one  of  the  great  landmarks  of  the  country.  It 
could  be  seen  from  the  bluffs  of  the  Illinois  river  on  the 
east,  and  from  Macomb  on  the  west,  and  from  the  north  for 
twenty-five  or  thirty  miles.  Travelers  across  the  unbroken 
and  almost  pathless  prairie  were  guided  in  their  course  by 
Table  Grove  and  other  perspicuous  groves. 

Many  of  the  streams  of  water,  such  as  Big  Creek,  Sugar, 
Otter,  Copperas,  Cedar  and  Buckheart  Creek,  would  run 
grist  and  lumber  mills  about  two-thirds  of  the  year.  These 
streams  and  their  valleys,  covered  by  a  thick  growth  of 
timber  and  full  of  wild  game,  were  beautiful  beyond 
words. 

The  prairies  were  generally  named  after  the  men  that 
first  settled  upon  them.  The  prairie  where  Canton  stands 
was  called  "Barnes'  Prairie,"  for  David  W.  Barnes,  who 
was  the  first  settler  there.  The  prairie  west  of  Cuba  was 
called  "Totten's  Prairie,"  in  honor  of  William  Totten,  who 
was  the  first  settler.  The  prairie  in  Pleasant  township  was 
named  "Rowland's  Prairie,"  for  William  and  Eiley  Row- 
land, the  first  settlers.  The  prairie  on  the  Illinois  bottom 
south  of  Spoon  river  was  called  "Gardiner's  Prairie."  An 
old  Scotch  Presbyterian  settled  there  in  1823.  He  had 
two  sons  and  three  daughters.  He  was  the  father  of  James 
and  Charles  Gardiner,  whose  names  are  frequently  men- 
tioned in  Chapman's  History  of  Fulton  County.  But  no 
allusion  has  been  made  to  the  old  father.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  exemplary  Christian  men,  as  well  as  most  enter- 
prising, among  the  early  pioneers.  He  never  failed  of 
holding  family  worship  morning  and  evening,  and  would 
always  ask  a  blessing  at  the  table,  and  after  the  meal  was 
through  no  one  was  allowed  to  leave  the  table  until  he  had 
returned  thanks.  Such  devotion  was  remarkable  among 


64  EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

the  early  pioneers.  He  moved  from  Springfield,  and 
brought  with  him  nursery  stock  for  the  famous  orchard 
that  for  a  long  time  was  known  all  over  that  country  as 
"Gardiner's  Orchard."  Gardiner's  Prairie  extended  south 
from  Spoon  river  about  three  miles,  and  from  the  bluffs  to 
a  fringe  of  timber  within  half  a  mile  of  the  Illinois  river, 
also  three  miles.  The  land  was  very  rich,  but  part  of  it 
was  too  wet  for  cultivation.  The  prairie  that  joined 
Thompson's  lake,  north  of  Spoon  river,  was  about  two 
miles  square,  and  with  the  lake  was  named  for  Nathan 
Thompson.  He  and  his  son-in-law,  Stephen  Meeker,  were 
the  first  settlers  on  that  prairie.  The  prairie  two  miles 
east  of  Lewistown  was  about  three  miles  long  and  from  one 
to  two  miles  wide,  and  it  was  called  "  Smith's  Prairie  " 
after  Jeremiah  Smith,  who  first  settled  there  on  a  place  that 
was  afterwards  owned  by  Col.  Reuben  Simms.  It  was  one 
N/bf  the  most  beautiful  prairies  mortal  eyes  ever  beheld.  It 
was  covered  with  what  was  called  blue-stemmed  grass,  a 
most  excellent  grass  for  hay.  It  grew  from  three  to  four 
feet  high,  and  afforded  hay  enough  for  all  the  people  of 
Lewistown  and  the  settlers  for  many  miles  in  all  direc- 
tions. All  the  people  had  to  do  was  to  cut  the  hay  and 
haul  it  home.  At  that  time  hay  was  cut  with  a  scythe  and 
raked  together  with  a  wooden  hand-rake  and  pitchfork. 
Among  my  recollections  was  of  riding  a  horse  to  haul  hay 
on  Smith's  Prairie.  I  was  a  little  codger  of  seven  or  eight 
years.  We  had  to  haul  the  hay  together  for  stacking  on 
what  was  called  a  brush  sled.  A  small,  bushy  tree  would 
be  cut  down  and  some  of  the  limbs  cut  off  so  as  to  make 
a  sort  of  flat  surface ;  and  the  hay  would  then  be  piled  on 
top ;  a  horse  would  be  hitched  to  the  contrivance  by  a  chain 
or  rope,  and  so  the  hay  would  be  hauled  to  the  place  where 
it  was  to  be  stacked.  And  that  was  what  we  called  a 
"  brush  sled."  Many  a  hot  summer  day  I  have  rode  the . 
old  horse  to  haul  hay  on  the  Smith  Prairie,  where  the 
Rices,  W.  W.  Smith,  Sampsl  Campbell,  J.  Wertman,  W. 
C.  Harrison,  the  Lawses,  Rileys  and  Chapins  now  live. 

One  time  the  green-head  flies  attacked  my  old  horse  so 
bad  that  he  ran  away.     My  strength  was  not  sufficient  to 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  65 

hold  him ;  after  he  had  run  about  half  a  mile  I  jumped  off 
but  did  not  jump  far  enough  to  miss  the  brush  top  that  he 
was  dragging,  so  I  was  caught  under  the  brush  sled,  and 
was  so  badly  bruised  that  I  was  laid  up  for  repairs  for  sev- 
eral days.  The  old  horse  never  stopped  running  until  he 
got  home. 

Smith's  Prairie  was  celebrated  for  the  numerous  plum 
and  crabapple  orchards  that  grew  round  its  borders.  The 
large  red  and  yellow  plums  grew  there  in  such  abundance 
that  people  would  come  from  long  distances  and  haul  them 
away  by  the  wagon-loads,  and  would  preserve  them  with 
honey  or  maple  sugar,  which  were  the  only  sweetening  we 
had  in  pioneer  times.  This' fruit  made  a  good  substitute 
for  domestic  fruit.  Fulton  county  was  blessed  above 
other  sections  of  the  state  in  its  great  abundance  of  sugar- 
tree  groves,  which  enabled  people  to  make  their  own  sugar. 

There  is  one  other  thing  that  will  appear  very  remark- 
able. When  the  first  settlers  came  to  tlie  county  there 
was  no  one  that  appeared  to  have  the  remotest  idea  that 
there  was  such  a  thing  as  bituminous  coal  all  about  them 
in  the  earth,  or  that  it  had  any  use.  The  only  people 
who  had  lived  there  were  the  Indians,  and  they  never 
used  it,  and  the  people  would  as  soon  have  thought  of 
looking  for  gold  or  silver  as  looking  for  coal.  It  was 
about  two  years  after  the  first  settlement  was  made  that 
coal  was  discovered.  Meantime  blacksmithing  was  one 
of  the  first  things  needed  in  the  settlement,  and  a  coal  pit 
was  built  and  charcoal  burned  and  used  until  stone  coal 
was  discovered.  The  first  coal  found  in  the  county  was 
discovered  by  old  Mr.  Gardiner,  whom  I  have  referred  to 
as  having  settled  about  ten  miles  south  of  Lewistown. 
He  was  out  one  day  to  look  for  stone  to  build  a  fireplace  in 
his  log  house  which  he  had  just  erected,  and  in  digging 
for  stone  he  found  the  coal  bank  which  was  situated  at 
the  foot  of  the  bluff  east  of  what  is  now  known  as  Isabel 
church.  Mr.  Gardiner  took  a  load  of  the  coal  to  Lewis- 
town,  and  the  people  were  highly  delighted  to  learn  that 
stone  coal  had  been  found  in  the  countv.  The  next  coal 


66  EAELY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

bank  that  was  discovered  was  on  Big  Creek  about  where 
the  Narrow  Gauge  crosses  it  three  miles  north  of  Lewis- 
town.  Another  bank  was  discovered  three  miles  south- 
west of  Lewistown.  But  the  Gardiner  bank  supplied  all 
the  people  south  of  Spoon  river  and  at  Havana  with  all 
the  coal  they  wanted  free  of  charge.  All  they  had  to  do 
was  to  go  and  dig  and  then  haul  it  home.  I  remember 
that  when  I  was  living  in  Havana  of  going  with  Mr.  East- 
man Call  to  the  Gardiner  bank  to  dig  coal.  Mr.  Call 
had  just  opened  a  blacksmith  shop  at  Havana,  which  was 
before  he  opened  a  shop  at  Lewistown.  It  took  but  a 
short  time  to  fill  our  wagon  with  coal.  So  I  could  have 
it  to  tell  that  I  had  dug  coal  out  of  the  first  coal  bank  that 
was  ever  opened  in  Fulton  county. 

May  I  also  be  permitted  modestly  to  recall  the  fact  that 
I  opened  the  first  banking  establishment  in  Fulton  county. 
It  was  a  branch,  of  a  Jacksonville  state  bank,  and  was  lo- 
cated in  the  town  of  Vermont  in  1859,  and  wTas  called  the 
"Fulton  Bank."  The  bank  bills  were  issued  and  printed 
at  Jacksonville,  Illinois.  I  was  appointed  agent,  and  had 
the  entire  supervision  and  control  of  it.  I  can  say  that, 
no  depositor  or  patron  of  that  bank  ever  lost  a  dollar 
throuffh  his  dealings  with  it.  So  I  have  had  the  honor 

O  CD 

of  digging  coal  out  of  the  first  bank  ever  discovered  in 
Fulton  county,  and  also  of  operating  the  first  bank  ever 
opened  in  Fulton  county,  and  one  occupation  was  as  hon- 
orable as  the  other. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

JOHN   COLEMAN,  A  REMARKABLE  PIONEER. LITTLE  PIKERS 

FIRST   RIDE. 

Amongst  the  early  pioneers  of  Fulton  county  there  was 
one  man  whose  name  the  historians  of  the  county  have 
failed  to  mention,  who,  to  my  mind,  was  one  of  the  most 
enterprising  men  in  the  county,  and  for  the  first  fifteen 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  67 

or  twenty  years  of  the  county's  settlement  did  more  to  de- 
velop and  improve  its  resources  than  any  other  citizen. 

His  name  was  John  Coleman.  He  moved  from  New 
Jersey  to  Fulton  county  in  1827,  coming  the  entire  dis- 
tance in  two  and  four-horse  wagons.  He  bought  a  half- 
section  (320  acres)  of  land  a  half  mile  north  of  the  then 
hamlet  of  Canton.  He  was  a  large  man,  weighing  some 
200  pounds,  and  his  wife  was  a  large  woman.  They  had 
five  sons  and  three  daughters.  They  were  all  industrious, 
good  workers,  and  in  a  few  years  they  had  in  cultiva- 
tion the  largest  and  best  farm  in  Fulton  county.  They 
planted  out  a  good  orchard,  and  located  on  the  farm  a 
blacksmith  shop  and  a  horse-mill,  and  also  a  dairy  for  the 
manufacture  of  butter  and  cheese.  While  living  in  New 
Jersey  Mr.  Coleman  had  carried  on  the  business  of  manu- 
facturing axes,  and  when  he  got  his  shop  started  he  con- 
tinued the  business  of  making  axes,  and  they  were  prob- 
ably the  first  axes  that  were  manufactured  in  the  state. 
His  axes  were  all  stamped  with  the  name  " J.  Coleman/' 
and  were  warranted  that  if  an  ax  broke  with  proper  usage 
he'd  either  mend  it  or  replace  it  with  a  new  one.  He 
found  a  good  sale  for  them.  It  was  a  good  thing  for  the 
people  that  such  a  man  had  settled  among  them.  He 
also  brought  with  him  a  stock  of  dry  goods,  which  were 
the  first  goods  brought  to  the  vicinity  of  Canton,  and  the 
next  stock  brought  to  the  county  after  the  Phelpses  had 
opened  a  store  at  Lewistown. 

There  were  some  little  circumstances  that  happened 
about  the  time  that  the  Coleman  family  came  to  the  county 
that  I  will  mention.  They  crossed  the  Illinois  river  at 
Havana  and  came  up  through  Lewistown  and  camped  near 
my  father's  house,  Avho  then  lived  north  of  Lewistown, 
where  Major  Walker  now  lives.  Mr.  Coleman  came  to 
the  house  to  buy  some  corn  and  hay  to  feed  their  horses, 
and  my  father  enquired  where  they  came  from,  and  he 
replied  from  New  Jersey;  and  when  my  mother  learned 
that  they  had  come  from  New  Jersey,  she  became  inter- 
ested in  them,  as  that  was  her  native  state,  having  been 


68  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

born  and  raised  there.  And  she  invited  him  to  bring  his 
wife  and  stay  in  the  house  over  night.  He  remarked  that 
they  had  not  slept  inside  of  a  house  since  they  left  New 
Jersey;  that  they  camped  out  and  slept  in  their  wagons. 
But  they  came  over  and  spent  the  evening  in  talking  over 
JSTew  Jersey  with  my  mother,  and  stayed  all  night.  The 
next  morning  Mr.  Coleman,  in  looking  over  my  father's 
stock  of  cattle,  took  quite  a  liking  to  a  large  yoke  of  oxen 
that  he  had  and  proposed  buying  them.  My  father  told 
him  he  could  have  them  for  $40.  He  said  he  would  take 
them  if  he  could  pay  for  them  in  goods ;  thathehadbrought 
along  a  stock  of  goods ;  that  they  were  packed  away  in  his 
wagons,  and  that  he  did  not  want  to  open  them  until  he 
got  some  buildings  put  up,  which  he  thought  would  take 
him  five  or  six  weeks.  So  my  father  let  him  have  the 
oxen,  agreeing  to  trade  them  out  after  he  got  his  store 
opened.  So  in  about  six  or  seven  weeks  my  mother  con- 
cluded that  she  would  go  up  and  trade  out  the  price  of  the 
oxen,  and  as  my  father  was  engaged  at  the  time,  and  could 
not  go  with  her,  he  got  a  young  man  named  Silas  Chase,  u 
son  of  old  Esq.  Stephen  Chase  who  lived  in  Lewistown,  to 
go  with  her  and  drive  the  horse  and  buggy.  -  They  got  along 
all  right  until  they  got  to  the  Big  Creek  hill,  which  was 
about  a  half  mile  long.  The  timber  all  the  way  down  the 
hill  had  stood  densely  thick,  and  a  narroAV  road  had  been 
cut  out  between  the  trees  just  wide  enough  for  a  wagon  to 
pass.  As  there  were  but  few  people  at  that  time  to  do 
road  work,  the  trees  had  been  cut  to  make  the  roadway 
and  the  stumps  left  standing  in  the  road.  My  mother 
had  taken  my  youngest  brother,  Pike,  along  with  her. 
He  was  between  two  and  three  years  old.  Just  as  they 
started  down  the  hill  some  of  the  harness  broke  and  let  the 
single-tree  strike  the  legs  of  the  horse,  which  frightened 
him  terribly,  and  he  ran  with  all  the  speed  that  was  in  him 
down  the  hill,  my  mother  expecting  every  moment  that 
the  buggy  would  strike  a  stump  or  a  tree  and  dash  them 
all  to  the  earth.  When  they  had  got  about  half  way  down 
the  hill  she  gathered  little  Pike  and  lifted  him  over  the  hind 
end  of  the  buggy,  holding*  him  by  one  arm  until  his  feet 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  69 

touched  the  ground,  and  then  dropped  him,  the  horse  run- 
ning all  the  way  down  the  hill  as  hard  as  he  could  tear. 
The  young  man  could  not  hold  him,  but  endeavored  to 
guide  him  so  as  to  miss  the  stumps  and  trees.  When  they 
got  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  the  horse  plunged  across  Big 
Creek  just  below  Ellis'  mill  dam.  The  water  was  about 
three  feet  deep,  which  checked  the  speed  of  the  horse,  and 
as  he  ascended  the  opposite  bank  the  driver  stopped  him. 
Young  Chase  then  got  out,  tied  up  the  broken  harness,  and 
then  turned  around  and  drove  across  the  creek  to  go  and 
hunt  up  the  boy.  They  met  him  coming  toddling  along 
down  the  hill,  and  all  right.  That  was  his  first  ride,  and 
he  .probably  thought  that  that  was  the  way  the  thing  had' 
to  be  done.  They  took  him  in  and  crossed  the  creek  again 
and  started  on  their  way  to  Coleman's. 

When  they  got  there  they  found  that  he  had  put  up  two 
log  houses,  with  a  hall  running  between  them,  with  a  door 
opening  from  the  hall  into  each  of  the  houses.  One  of 
the  houses  was  intended  for  a  store  and  a  bedroom,  and 
the  other  for  a  dwelling.  They  had  not  had  time  to  put 
up  any  counters  and  shelves,  but  had  erected  in  the  store- 
room three  bedsteads,  and  the  goods  had  been  unloaded 
from  the  wagons  and  piled  under  the  beds.  They  had 
one  son  called  Jerry,  who  was  lame,  but  could  assist  in 
the  store ;  and  when  my  mother  would  call  for  an  article 
of  goods  Jerry  would  be  sent  under  the  bed  to  hunt  it  up. 
She  said  that  she  thought  that  Jerry  had  been  sent  under 
the  beds  at  least  twenty  times  for  goods  by  the  time  she 
got  done  trading. 

A  short  time  after  the  Coleman  family  came  to  the 
county  their  oldest  daughter,  Joanna,  was  united  in  mar- 
riage to  Thomas  Wolf,  and  they  settled  about  four  miles 
east  of  Canton.  They  were  all  industrious,  good  farmers, 
and  made  number  one  good  citizens. 

There  were  some  things  rather  remarkable  about  John 
Coleman  in  regard  to  his  financial  operations.     At  that   * 
time   there  were  no   such   institutions   in   the   county  as 
banks  or  banking  houses,  and  Mr.  Coleman  answered  very 


70  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

well  the  need  of  such  an  institution,  for  if  a  man  canic 
into  the  county  with  money  that  he  did  not  want  to  use, 
Mr.  Coleman  would  always  take  it  of  him  if  he  could  get 
it  at  five  or  six  per  cent  interest ;  and  if  another  man  came 
along  that  wanted  to  borrow  some  money,  Mr.  Coleman 
always  accommodated  him  if  he  would  pay  ten  to  twelve 
per  cent  interest,  and  could  give  the  requisite  security. 
There  was  no  doubt  but  that  he  saved  many  a  man  from 
having  his  land  sold  for  taxes,  or  property  sold  for  debt, 
by  loaning  him  money.  So  he  was  certainly  a  benefactor 
to  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  It  was  well  known 
that  he  handled  a  good  deal  of  money,  and  the  great  query 
was  where  he  kept  it,foratthattimetherewas  no  such  thing 
in  existence  as  an  iron  safe  to  keep  money  in.  But  it  was 
told  by  some  that  had  done  business  with  him  that  he  had 
made  an  iron  box,  as  he  was  a  blacksmith,  and  kept  his 
money  in  that,  and  had  it  secreted '  under  his  bedroom 
floor;  and  when  he  wanted  to  have  access  to  his  money, 
all  that  he  had  to  do  was  to  pull  up  a  puncheon  of  the  floor 
and  take  out  the  iron  box. 

Mr.  Coleman  was  regarded  by  his  neighbors  as  a  very 
honorable  and  just  man  in  all  of  his  dealings,  and  his  word 
was  considered  as  good  as  his  bond. 

But  there  came  a  time  when  he  had  to  pass  through  one 
of  the  most  tragical  and  awful  ordeals  that  had  ever  hap- 
pened to  him  during  all  of  his  long  and  honorable  and 
useful  life.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  what  was  called 
"Westerfield's  Defeat,"  a  terrible  Indian  scare  that  took 
place  at  Canton  during  the  Blackhawk  War.  The  cause 
of  the  terrible  Indian  fight,  and  the  stampede  of  the  peo- 
ple that  followed  it,  and  the  prominent  part  that  Mr.  Cole- 
man took  in  the  affair,  I  will  have  to  leave  for  my  next 
letter.  :  i« 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  71 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    WESTERFIELD   INDIAN    SCARE. MEMORABLE    CYCLONE 

OF   1835. UPRISING  OF   CANTON^S  WOMEN  AGAINST   THE 

SALOONS   OF   THAT   VILLAGE. 

The  pioneer  hamlet  of  Canton  passed  through  three 
dreadful  ordeals  of  horror  and  excitement : 

The  first  was  "  Westerfield's  Defeat "  in  March,  1832, 
a  dreadful  Indian  scare. 

The  second  was  the  memorable  cyclone  of  June  18,  1835, 
in  which  five  Canton  people  were  killed,  many  houses 
blown  to  pieces,  and  goods  and  furniture  scattered  over  the 
prairies  and  forests  even  into  Mason  county. 

The  third  great  event  was  the  uprising  of  Canton's 
women  against  the  saloons  of  that  village  in  which  men 
stood  aghast  while  100  valiant  mothers,  wives  and  sisters 
gutted  the  saloons  and  routed  the  whisky  sellers. 

But  I  have  promised  to  tell  the  story  of  John  Coleman's 
connection  with  Westerfield's  defeat,  as  I  witnessed  part 
of  the  events.  There  were  many  reasons  in  1832  why  the 
people  of  Fulton  county  should  be  in  apprehension  of  a 
raid  and  general  massacre  by  Black  Hawk  and  his  great 
army  of  Indians.  This  county  for  ages  had  been  their 
home.  Here  were  their  favorite  hunting  grounds  and 
loved  sugar  groves  unsurpassed  on  the  whole  continent. 
Here  were  the  graves  of  their  sires.  The  Indians  ven- 
erated their  dead  as  white  people  do  not.  They  had  holy 
burial  places  at  Duncan's,  Walters'  graveyard  (where  there 
are  Indian  graves  to  this  day),  at  Mount  Pleasant,  and  at 
hundreds  of  spots  along  the  Spoon  and  Illinois  rivers  and 
all  over  the  great  woods  of  Fulton  county.  These  Indians 
knew  their  lands  had  been  wrongfully  taken  from  them, 
and  that  the  venerated  graves  of  their  dead  had  been  ruth- 
lessly plowed  and  desecrated.  They  had  only  been  driven 
out  of  the  county  about  two  years  before.  The  great  chief 
Black  Hawk  was  at  this  time  making  his  last  heroic  stand 


72  EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

on  Rock  river.  The  memorable  battle  of  "  Stillman's  De- 
feat "  had  just  been  fought  with  victory  to  the  Indians,  and 
among  the  dead  were  Bird  Ellis,  Tyus  Childs,  John  Wal- 
ters and  Joseph  Farris  of  Fulton  county.  Many  others 
were  wounded.  Among  these  was  Major  Samuel  Hackel- 
ton,  who  lived  on  Spoon  river,  four  miles  south  of  Lewis- 
town,  a  few  rods  west  of  the  spot  where  the  C.  B.  &  Q. 
bridge  now  spans  that  stream.  He  had  a  single  combat  in 
that  fight  with  a  chief,  both  armed  with  knives.  The  chief 
was  killed,  but  Hackelton  received  serious  wounds  that  dis- 
abled him  for  a  long  time.  This  battle  was  followed  by 
dreadful  Indian  massacres  in  the  Rock  river  country  in 
which  men  and  women  were  killed  and  scalped  and  little 
children  chopped  to  pieces  by  the  savages. 

Then  between  Canton  and  Rock  river  was  100  miles  of 
wilderness.  The  Indians  could  come  unheralded  to  the 
cabins  of  the  settlers.  All  these  things  were  known  to  the 
pioneers,  and  there  was  general  apprehension  and  alarm 
in  the  spring  of  1832.  During  March  scouts  were  kept 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  settlement  to  give  warning  if  bands 
of  Indians  should  appear.  There  was  such  gloom  and 
alarm  that  many  people  loaded  their  household  goods  and 
moved  over  the  Illinois  river  into  Sangamon  county,  where 
the  settlements  were  larger,  and  where  they  would  be  safe. 
Among  these  were  the  wife  and  younger  members  of  the 
family  of  John  Coleman.  Meantime  the  people  of  Canton 
erected  a  fort  or  block-house  to  go  into  if  necessary. 

One  day  Peter  Westerfield,  an  old  elder  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  of  Canton,  and  a  Frenchman,  Charles 
Shane,  went  on  an  independent  scouting  expedition  of 
their  own.  Some  ten  miles  northwest  of  Canton  they 
came  upon  a  trail  running  through  the  grass  which  they 
were  sure  had  been  made  by  traveling  Indians.  In  fact  it 
was  the  path  rnade  the  day  before  by  a  band  of  soldiers  en 
route  from  Beardstown  to  join  their  company  on  Rock 
river.  "Westerfield  and  Shane  immediately  hurried  back 
to  Canton  to  report  their  important  and  alarming  dis- 
covery. As  they  neared  Canton  they  heard  shooting  and 
shouts  of  a  party  of  fool  young  hunters  who  had  treed  a  lot 


EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  73 

of  game.  Of  course  they  assumed  that  it  was  Indians 
massacreing  white  families  who  lived  just  there.  They 
rode  furiously  into  the  hamlet  of  Canton,  yelling  wildly  at 
every  cabin  they  passed,  "  The  Indians  are  on  us !  The 
Indians  are  on  us !"  There  was  an  immediate  panic  which 
no  words  will  describe.  People  hastily  gathered  their 
wives  and  little  ones  and  rushed  either  to  Canton  or  to  the 
brush,  hoping  to  escape  the  scalping  knives  that  seemed 
hanging  over  them.  In  Canton  there  was  the  wildest 
alarm.  Mr.  Western* eld  had  the  confidence  of  the  people. 
They  believed  his  report  implicitly.  The  more  timid 
started  a-foot  and  by  every  means  of  conveyance  toward 
Havana  and  Sangamon  county.  Others  gathered  at  the 
Canton  fort  to  make  the  best  defense  they  could.  The 
story  of  heroism  and  helplessness  from  fright  would  fill 
many  columns. 

John  Coleman  and  his  son  Jerry  were  at  their  store  and 
residence  a  half-mile  north  of  Canton.  They  quickly 
started  to  join  Mrs.  Coleman  and  children  at  Havana,  and 
as  they  passed  along  south  through  the  Wilcoxen  neighbor- 
hood they  gave  the  alarm  at  every  cabin  they  passed. 
These  people  in  turn  gave  the  alarm  to  their  neighbors  in 
what  is  now  Buckheart,  Liverpool  and  Waterford  town- 
ships, as  the  road  from  Canton  to  Havana  passed  four  or 
five  miles  east  of  Lewistown. 

Mr.  Coleman  and  his  son  got  to  the  ferry  at  Havana 
about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  My  father  was  keeping 
the  ferry  at  that  time,  and  had  two  boats — one  large  one 
for  heavy  teams,  and  a  smaller  one  for  horsemen  and 
buggies.  As  a  lad  I  was  then  steersman  for  the  smaller 
boat,  and  was  an  eye-witness  to  the  stirring  events  of  that 
time  in  Havana.  We  heard  the  frantic  yells  of  Mr.  Cole- 
man through  the  dense  timber  half-a-mile  away  from  the 
ferry.  As  he  came  nearer  we  could  hear  "  Indians !" 
"  Murder  !"  When  they  got  to  the  boat  Mr.  Coleman  told 
us  of  the  Indian  raid  at  Canton,  of  the  probable  horrid 
massacre  of  many  families,  and  that  the  people  were  com- 
ing to  the  river  in  swarms,  and  that  we  had  better  have  both 
boats  ready  at  once,  as  we  would  have  all  we  could  do  to 


74  EAKLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

ferry  them  over.  He  was  entirely  correct,  for  we  had  only 
landed  them  on  the  Havana  side  when  we  again  heard 
hallooing  on 'the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  the  people 
poured  in  upon  us  in  such  a  flood  that  both  boats  were  kept 
busy  until  11  o'clock  at  night.  The  people  came  a-foot,  on 
horse-back  and  in  all  imaginable  pioneer  conveyances. 
As  many  as  three  of  four  members  of  a  family  would 
come  riding  on  one  horse.  There  was  but  one  block-house 
in  Havana  at  that  time,  and  many  of  these  people  went 
right  on  into  the  Springfield  country. 

After  the  people  had  all  been  ferried  over  the  river  there 
were  two  men  who  determined  to  go  back  to  the  Canton 
country  and  see  just  what  the  situation  was,  and  at  Canton 
they  learned  that  it  was  all  a  mistake,  and  that  there  had 
not  been  an  Indian  within  maybe  100  miles  of  the  settle- 
ment. So  they  hurried  back  to  Havana  to  tell  the  good 
news,  and  the  people  with  unbounded  joy  began  at  once  to 
return  to  their  homes.  Mr.  Coleman  and  his  family  had 
gone  on  to  the  Springfield  country.  But  in  a  few  days 
they  returned  and  were  again  ferried  over  into  the  Fulton 
county  country  and  returned  to  their  Canton  home  and 
store  in  a  much  pleasanter  frame  of  mind  than  when  they 
so  suddenly  left.  But  Mr.  Coleman  was  not  feeling  very 
amiable  toward  his  neighbor,  Mr.  Westerfield.  But  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  old  elder  was  just  as  honest  and  sincere 
in  warning  his  neighbors  to  flee  from  Black  Hawk's  toma- 
hawk and  scalping  knife  as  when  he  was  leading  a  prayer- 
meeting  in  the  Canton  Presbyterian  church. 

But  it  was  the  greatest  Indian  scare  that  ever  was  known 
in  that  country. 


EARLY    PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS.  75 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

PIONEER   HANGINGS. EARLY    LAWYERS. 

In  all  the  seventy- five  years  of  Fulton  county's  history 
there  has  never  been  a  legal  execution  within  its  limits. 
In  that  time  there  have  been  scores  of  murders,  many  of 
them  meriting  the  death  penalty,  but  owing  to  the  tricks  of 
lawyers  and  the  weakness  of  juries,  these  criminals  have 
all  escaped  serious  punishment. 

However,  I  beg  permission  in  this  letter  to  discuss  some 
of  the  pioneer  hangings  that  I  have  witnessed,  although  it 
is  not  a  very  pleasant  subject  to  write  about.  But  there 
are  valuable  lessons  connected  with  these  tragedies  that 
will  not  be  lost  upon  the  readers  of  The  Fulton  Democrat. 

The  first  execution  that  I  ever  witnessed  was  that  of  a 
father  and  his  son  who  were  hung  in  Rushville,  Illinois,  in 
June,  1835.  They  were  Elias  McFadden  and  son  David, 
who  lived  a  mile  south  of  Macomb.  The  sheriff  came 
one  day  with  an  execution  to  levy  on  a  crib  of  corn,  and  got 
a  farmer  named  John  Wilson,  a  quiet  and  much  respected 
citizen  of  the  neighborhood,  to  go  with  him  with  his  horses 
and  wagon  to  haul  the  corn  away.  When  the  two  men  ar- 
rived at  McFadden's  farm  the  older  McFadden  in  great 
heat  struck  the  horses  with  a  stick  and  ordered  them  to 
leave  the  place.  But  they  persisted  in  levying  on  the  corn, 
when  young  McFadden  fired  from  their  cabin  window  and 
shot  John  Wilson  so  that  he  died  within  a  couple  of  days. 
The  McFaddens  were  arrested,  but  took  a  change  of  venue 
to  Schuyler  county.  They  were  tried  before  Judge  R.  M. 
Young  and  prosecuted  by  Cyrus  Walker,  prosecuting  at- 
torney for  that  district.  The  two  men  were  convicted  of 
murder  and  sentenced  to  be  hung.  Notice  was  given  in  the 
newspapers  that  the  execution  would  be  public,  and  hun- 
dreds of  people  from  Fulton,  McDonough  and  Schuyler 
counties  went  to  see  the  double  hanging. 

I  was  then  living  at  Havana,  and  with  another  young 


76  EABLY  PIONEEKS  AND  EVENTS. 

man  started  to  see  the  execution.  On  the  road  we  came 
up  with  Hugh  Lamaster,  Nathan  Beadles  and  Robert 
Gamble,  all  from  Lewistown  on  their  way  to  Rushville. 
Mr.  Lamaster  invited  us  to  stop  over  night  with  their 
party  at  the  home  of  one  of  his  uncles,  about  three  miles 
north  of  Rushville.  Here  we  found  a  Christian  and  hos- 
pitable home  in  which  no  pay  would  be  taken  for  our  en- 
tertainment. The  next  day  was  the  time  of  the  execution, 
and  we  found  1000  to  1200  people  gathered  about  the  jail 
to  see  the  prisoners  as  they  were  to  march  to  their  death. 
About  twenty  minutes  before  they  were  taken  out,  a  couple 
of  two-horse  wagons  were  driven  up  to  the  jail,  in  each  of 
which  was  a  coffin  in  plain  view.  The  prisoners  were 
brought  from  the  upper  portion  of  the  jail  down  a  flight  of 
stairs  on  the  outside.  They  were  both  tall  men,  and  were 
dressed  in  white  shrouds,  with  white  caps  on  their  heads. 
They  made  a  very  ghostly  appearance  as  they  walked  down 
the  long  stairs  and  climbed  into  the  wagons  and  took  their 
seats  on  the  top  of  their  coffins. 

1  should  here  remind  the  readers  that,  when  a  person 
was  buried  they  were  dressed  in  white  cambric  shrouds, 
similar  to  those  the  prisoners  wore,  which  'added  so  much 
to  their  horrible  appearance.  It  was  not  until  about  in 
1845  that  the  people  commenced  to  bury  their  friends  in 
their  wearing  apparel. 

The  distance  from  the  jail  to  the  place  of  execution  was 
about  a  mile,  and  a  long  procession  was  formed,  some  in 
wagons,  some  on  horseback,  and  others  a-foot.  One  of 
the  strangest  things  about  this  event  was  the  fact  that  the 
wife  and  mother  of  the  two  men  was  in  the  procession  to 
go  and  see  husband  and  son  executed.  The  place  of  ex- 
ecution was  a  hollow  between  two  hills  which  afforded 
the  people  a  good  view  of  the  hanging.  It  was  estimated 
that  from  2,000  to  3,000  people  were  present.  The  men 
both  testified  that  they  had  both  experienced  religion  while 
confined,  in  the  jail  and  had  received  forgiveness  for  their 
awful  crime.  They  talked  for  a  few  moments,  then 
shook  hands  with  some  of  their  friends,  then  shook  hands 


EA1U.Y  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  77 

with  each  other,  and  then  embraced  and  kissed  each  other, 
and  then  the  white  caps  were  drawn  over  their  faces  and 
the  trap  was  sprung.  As  they  were  launched  into  eternity 
the  old  lady,  the  wife  of  one  and  mother  of  the  other,  was 
only  a  few  rods  away  gazing  intently  upon  the  scene.  As 
the  drop  fell  with  her  beloved  ones  dangling  at  the  end  of 
the  ropes,  she  gave  one  awful  scream  of  anguish  and  ter- 
ror and  then  all  was  still.  After  they  had  hung  about 
fifteen  minutes  they  were  taken  down  and  laid  in  their 
coffins.  It  was  all  so  tragical  and  dreadful  to  behold  that 
it  haunted  my  young  mind  by  night  and  by  day  for  many  . 
months. 

X2.£     L>    '  ;      -     • 

The  next  JiangingJ:hat  I  had  an  opportunity  o^ seeing 
was  that  of  Peter  McCue,  who  hung  himself  in  his  hatter 
shop  in  Lewistown  in  about  1843.  I  happened  to  be  in 
town  that  day.  (His  shop  was  on  the  spot  where  the 
Walter  Belless  building  is  now  going  up.)  I  was  riding 
clown  Main  street  and  observed  a  great  crowd  of  men  and 
boys  peeping  through  the  windows  to  see  the  body.  I  got 
off  of  my  horse  and  took  a  peep  at  him  myself.  He  had 
fastened  a  cord  to  a  joist  in  his  hatter  shop,  and  was  hang- 
ing with  his  toes  just  touching  the  floor.  The  only  person 
that  I  can  recall,  now  living,  who  was  present  was  Maj. 
jSTewton  Walker.  I  knew  Peter  McCue  very  well,  while 
he  was  carrying  on  the  hatter's  trade,  for  about  nine  years. 
He  was  single,  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  an  Irishman 
by  birth  and  a  Catholic  in  religion.  Pie  learned  his  trade 
in  the  old  country  and  was  a  very  good  and  successful  hat- 
ter. When  he  put  an  end  to  his  life  he  was  in  the  habit 
of  going  to  St.  Louis  once  a  year.  His  friends  used  to  vX 
say  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  confessing  his  sins  to  a  priest. 
The  last  time  he  started  on  this  annual  trip  he  went  as 
far  as  Havana,  and  while  waiting  for  a  steamboat  the  Illi- 
nois river  froze  up  and  he  had  to  return  to  Lewistown. 
His  friends  observed  that  he  was  melancholy  after  his  re- 
turn home,  but  did  not  dream  that  it  was  a  serious  matter. 
It  was  inferred  that  his  failure  to  see  the  priest  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  his  suicide.  I  remember  that  Peter  one 


78  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

time  made  a  fur  hat  for  my  father  for  $8.50,  and  it  was 
well  worth  the  money,  for  it  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
hats  I  have  ever  seen.  My  father  had  only  worn  it  three 
or  four  times  before  his  death,  and  my  mother  subse- 
quently gave  it  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  Nelson,  a  Presby- 
terian minister,  who  was  conducting  a  camp  meeting  near 
Canton,  in  the  fall  of  1838,  when  some  150  or  200  people 
were  converted  and  joined  the  church.  I  have  had  oc- 
casion once  before  to  speak  of  Dr.  Nelson,  and  will  only 
add  that  he  was  one  of  the  early  pioneer  Presbyterian 
ministers  who  traveled  through  the  country  between  the 
Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers  and  organized  very  many 
churches  and  Sabbath  schools. 

A  year  after  Peter  McCue  went  to  Lewistown  I  also 
went  there  to  attend  school,  and  for  a  long  time  boarded 
with  Peter  with  the  family  of  W.  C.  Osborn.  So  we 
were  a  good  deal  together.  He  was  kind  and  friendly 
disposed,  and  I  had  come  to  like  him  very  much,  and  was 
very  sad  indeed  to  see  the  poor  fellow  hanging  dead  in  his 
own  shop. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Osborn,  the  man  we  boarded  with,  was  the 
second  lawyer  that  settled  in  Fulton  county.  Hugh  R. 
Coulter  was  the  first  lawyer,  and  William  Elliott  the 
third.  At  that  time  Mr.  Osborn  owned  the  entire  block 
west  of  the  public  square  in  Lewistown,  and  his  dwelling 
house  stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  block.  He  was  one 
of  the  well-known  pioneers  of  that  time. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

SUICIDE  OF  EDWARD  STAPLEFORD  AND  ITS  AWFUL 
CONSEQUENCE. 

The/suicide  of  Edward  Stapleford  in  the  town  of  Ver- 
mont, about  1857,  had  some  unusual  features.  He  was  a 
native  of  Maryland,  had  run  a  store  in  Beardstown,  Illi- 
nois, and  came  to  Vermont  and  opened  a  store  in  about 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  79 

1845.  He  was  a  shrewd  business  man  and  soon  had 
worked  up  quite  a  trade.  He  had  frequently  engaged  in 
speculations  in  pork  and  wheat  and  anything  in  which 
money  could  be  made.  Generally  he  was  very  successfuJ. 

In  those  time  we  had  no  railways,  and  the  only  way  o± 
shipping  products  to  market  was  by  steamboats  on  the  Illi- 
nois river  to  St.  Louis.  We  had  no  telegraphic  communica- 
tions with  the  world,  and  but  one  mail  a  week ;  so  the  most 
direct  way  of  getting  commercial  news  was  from  news- 
papers brought  up  on  steamboats  from  St.  Louis.  During 
the  progress  of  the  Crimean  war  in  1854-'55  the  price  of 
pork  and  wheat  went  up  to  a  very  much  higher  price  than 
it  had  been  for  many  years,  and  many  country  merchants 
in  Illinois  were  ripe  for  speculation,  and  Mr.  Stapleford 
was  one  of  the  most  ambitious  merchants  among  them. 

One  Saturday  evening  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  news- 
paper direct  from  St.  Louis,  and  it  brought  the  news  that 
wheat  and  pork  had  taken  a  wonderful  rise  in  price.  It 
was  later  news  than  any  of  the  .other  merchants  had  been 
able  to  get;  so  he  started  out  early  Sunday  morning  to 
scour  the  country  and  buy  up  all  the  wheat  and  pork  he 
could  find.  He  was  afraid  to  wait  until  Monday  lest  the 
other  merchants  should  also  find  out  the  good  news  and 
get  ahead  of  him. 

I  was  also  keeping  store  in  Vermont  at  that  time,  and 
our  stores  were  close  together.  The  next  morning  he 
stopped  at  my  store  as  he  was  passing.  He  was  in  his 
happiest  mood.  It  was  his  trait  to  be  happy  when  he  was 
making  money,  but  very  gloomy  if  trade  was  against  him. 

"  Good  morning,"  was  Mr.  Stapleford's  salutation, 
"  where  do  you  suppose  I  Avas  yesterday  ?" 

I  replied  that  I  supposed  he  was  with  his  family  at 
church. 

He  then  told  me  of  his  having  contracted  with  a  good 
many  farmers  for  their  pork  and  wheat.  Apparently  it 
was  a  master  stroke. 

Mr.  Stapleford  rushed  business  with  all  his  might  to 
get  his  produce  en  route  to  St.  Louis  before  the  river 


80  EA17LY    PIONEEKS    AND   EVENTS. 

should  freeze ;  but,  alas !  just  as  he  was  ready  to  load  his 
pork  and  wheat  on  a  steamboat  cold  weather  set  in, 
the  river  was  frozen  solid,  and  his  stuff  laid  at  the 
warehouse  until  the  first  of  April.  Then  the  war 
had  ended,  and  produce  had  gone  down  one-halt 
in  price.  Of  course  he  was  in  debt  to  the  St.  Louis 
merchants,  and  when  his  produce  arrived  they  were  on 
hand  to  secure  the  last  dollar  due  them,  and  it  left  him 
almost  nothing  to  pay  the  farmers  who  had  sold  him  their 
produce  on  credit. 

When  he  came  home  it  was  noised  abroad  that  he  had 
lost  big  money  on  his  venture.  The  farmers  were  in 
great  need  of  their  money  to  pay  their  taxes  and  other 
pressing  debts.  So  these  farmers  gathered  in  crowds 
and  demanded  their  money,  sometimes  in  no  very  gentle 
tones.  Mr.  Stapleford  was  very  proud  and  haughty,  and 
these  assaults  annoyed  and  angered  him  tremendously. 

One  day  he  went  to  dinner  as  usual  and  ate  a  hearty 
meal:  nothing  unusual  appeared  in  his  manner.  But  as 
he  started  out  he  saw  five  or  six  of  his  creditors  lining  the 
street  and  awaiting  his  appearance,  presumably  to  renew 
their  appeals  for  the  money  due  them.  He -turned  round 
and  started  for  his  back  door,  remarking  to  his  wife : 

"  I  guess  I'll  fool  those  fellows." 

He  went  out  at  the  back  door,  Mrs.  S.  naturally  suppos- 
ing he  had  gone  to  the  store  by  a  back  way  to  avoid  his 
creditors. 

But  a  half-hour  later  he  was  found  hanging  by  a  cord 
in  his  barn,  and  dead.  He  had  ''  fooled  those  fellows  "  by 
committing  suicide !  The  alarm  was  given,  and  great 
crowds  visited  the  barn  to  see  the  grewsome  spectacle. 

About  eight  months  after  Mr.  Stapleford  moved  to 
Vermont  he  had  married  one  of  the  handsomest  and 
most  amiable  and  popular  young  ladies  of  the  town. 
She  belonged  to  one  of  the  best  families  of  the 
place,  and  was  connected  with  some  of  the  best 
families  of  Cincinnati.  He  was  fifteen  years  her 
senior,  but  the  marriage  was  understood  to  have 
been  a  happy  one.  They  had  several  children,  and  they 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  81 

were  bright  and  beautiful.  His  death  was  such  a  shock 
to  his  devoted  wife  that  she  became  insane.  Her  parents 
cared  for  her  as  long  as  they  lived,  and  after  their  deat11 
she  was  in  the  care  of  Cincinnati  relatives.  Forty  long 
years  this  poor  wife  was  a  care  to  those  who  loved  her. 

It  is  strange  that  any  mortal  should  thus  desert  such  a 
wife  and  family  by  the  suicide  route. 


CHAPTEK  XXL 

THE  PIONEEK  DOCTOR  AND  HIS  METHODS  OF  TREATMENT. 

THE  INDIAN  DOCTOR. HOW  HE  CURED  ME. 

In  looking  backward  over  the  seventy-five  years  of  my 
past  life  I  am  struck  with  wonder  and  amazement  at  the 
improvements  in  art,  science  and  literature.  The  wonder 
is,  what  will  the  next  seventy-five  years  develop  ? 

I  shall  discuss  the  advancement  made  in  two  of  the  pro- 
fessions, medicine  and  teaching.  In  this  paper  I  will  de- 
scribe the  pioneer  doctor. 

In  early  times  in  Fulton  county  there  was  no  such  thing 
as  a  drug  store.  The  merchants  kept  a  supply  of  medi- 
cines in  stock  among  their  dry  goods  and  groceries.  The 
doctors  never  gave  prescriptions,  but  carried  their  medi- 
cines around  in  medicine  bags  and  dosed  it  out  to  their 
patients. 

When  a  doctor  was  called  to  see  a  patient  the  first  thing 
he  did  was  to  examine  his  tongue,  then  feel  of  the  pulse  at 
the  wrist;  then  he  would  have  the  sick  one  set  up  in  a 
chair  to  be  bled.  The  sleeve  of  one  arm  would  be  rolled 
up  to  the  shoulder,  and  the  arm  extended  out  to  full  length, 
and  the  hand  grasped  around  the  handle  of  a  broom-stick 
to  hold  the  arm  steady  and  in  proper  position.  A  cord 
would  then  be  tied  tightly  around  the  arm  half  way  be- 
tween the  eldow  and  shoulder,  and  then  the  patient  was 
stabbed  in  a  blood  vessel  of  the  arm.  At  first  a  thumb- 
lance  was  used,  but  the  spring-lance  came  in  as  a  great  im- 


82  EARLY  PIONEEKS  AND  EVENTS. 

provement.  They  usually  took  from,  a  pint  to  a  quart  of 
blood,  dependent  upon  the  age  and  size  of  the  sick  one. 
After  the  bleeding  the  patient  would  be  given  an  emetic, 
and  after  he  had  been  thoroughly  vomited  he  would  be 
given  a  dose  of  calomel  and  jalop,  and  then  a  walloping 
dose  of  castor  oil.  After  all  those  horrors  the  patient 
would  be  taken  through  a  course  of  blistering.  A  blister 
6x10  inches  would  be  placed  upon  the  breast,  with  smaller 
ones  on  the  arms  and  legs ;  if  the  patient  was  very  sick  a 
portion  of  the  hair  would  be  shaved  off  the  head  and  one  of 
those  horrible  blisters  applied  to  the  head. 

The  doctors  made  their  own  blister-plasters.  They  car- 
ried in  their  medicine  bags  a  package  of  Spanish  flies,  a 
small  cake  of  tallow  and  some  pieces  of  canvas.  The  tal- 
low would  be  carefully  spread  over  the  canvas,  the  Spanish 
flies  sprinkled  over  it  and  pulverized  with  a  caseknife. 
These  flies  were  large  and  yellow,  resembling  yellow  wasps. 
The  plasters  would  be  left  on  from  six  to  eight  hours,  caus- 
ing terrible  pain.  They  would  then  be  removed  and  the 
blister  dressed  with  cabbage  leaves,  or  a  bit  of  tallowed 
muslin.  Sometimes  the  blisters  would  be  drawn  so  deep 
that  it  would  be  two  weeks  before  they  -would  healj  and 
during  the  time  a  white  substance  would  appear  in  the 
wound  which  was  called  "proud  flesh,"  and  it  was  removed 
by  sprinkling  over  it  powdered  roasted  alum,  this  also  caus- 
ing great  agony. 

One  marvelous  thing  the  common  people  could  not  un- 
derstand was  that  after  the  patient  had  gone  through  with 
all  this  bleeding,  vomiting,  purging  and  blistering,  and  been 
reduced  to  the  very  last  extremity,  he  was  not  allowed  by 
the  doctor  to  take  any  nourishing  food — nothing  better 
than  a  little  thin  gruel,  a  little  chicken  broth,  or  a  little 
toast  and  tea ;  and  while  the  poor  creature,  tortured  with  a 
burning  thirst,  might  be  screaming  for  water,  he  was  not 
allowed  to  have  one  cool  drop,  but  might  have  a  little  warm 
tea  or  slippery-elm  tea  water. 

Tf  under  this  treatment  the  patient  was  fortunate  enough 
to  get  well,  the  doctor  would  claim  for  himself  a  vast 
amount  of  credit  for  his  skill  that  brought  him  from  the 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  83 

verge  of  the  grave;  but  if  the  poor  creature  diedj  it  was 
laid  to  the  decree  of  Providence. 

In  the  early  days  we  had  no  dentists,  and  the  regular 
doctors  did  all  the  tooth-pulling.  They  carried  an  instru- 
ment called  a  tooth-drawer,  or  "pullikens,"  shaded  like  a 
gimlet,  but  with  a  loose  hook  that  was  caught  around  the 
tooth,  and  then  a  twist  of  the  handle  brought  out  the  tooth 
— sometimes.  The  price  for  pulling  a  tooth  was  25  cents. 

It  was  three  and  a  half  years  after  the  county  was  first 
settled  by  white  people  before  we  had  a  regular  doctor. 
But  we  found  here  an  Indian  doctor  who  was  practicing  in 
Indian  families,  of  whom  I  will  have  more  to  say. 

We  also  found  residing  near  Waterf ord  Dr.  W.  T.  Davi- 
son,  but  he  was  a  hermit  and  refused  to  practice  or  have 
anything  to  do  with  white  people;  and  when  they  com- 
menced to  settle  around  him  he  loaded  his  goods  into  a 
canoe  and  left  the  county. 

The  readers  will  remember  Mrs.  Jacob  Niman,  who 
once  mounted  a  fleet  horse  and  started  for  Springfield, 
1821.  She  followed  midwifery,  and  usually  with  good 
success.  For  three  years  she  was  present  at  about  all  the 
births  in  Lewistown  and  vicinity.  But  when  she  was 
called  to  attend  my  aunt,  Mrs.  Hugh  R.  Coulter,  the  child 
did  well,  but  the  mother  did  not  do  well,  and  Mrs.  1SR- 
inan  did  not  appear  to  know  how  to  treat  her.  The  Indian 
doctor  was  called  in  consultation,  but  he  told  Mr.  Coulter 
his  wife  would  die  and  he  did  not  wish  to  prescribe  for 
fear  he  would  be  blamed ;  but  intimated  that  if  he  had 
been  called  at  first  all  would  have  been  well. 

Then  came  a  ride  for  life.  My  Uncle  Thomas  Ross  at 
once  mounted  a  fieet  horse  and  started  for  Springfield, 
fifty-eight  miles  distant,  for  the  doctor  nearest  to  Lewis- 
town.  He  never  stopped  his  wild  ride  for  life,  through 
116  miles  of  wild  pioneer  woods,  until  he  had  the  doctor 
at  her  bedside.  The  doctor  stayed  with  her  twenty-four 
hours,  and  then  went  home.  He  was  eminent  in  his  pro- 
fession, but  could  not  save  her  life.  She  died  in  two  days. 
Her  babe  grew  to  be  a  fine  boy.  Mr.  Coulter  subsequently 


84  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

married  a  Miss  Bushnell,  who  was  killed  by  a  runaway 
team  at  Galena,  111. 

My  Aunt  Maria  Coulter  was  the  first  person  buried  in 
the  present  cemetery  north  of  Lewistown.  All  those  who 
had  previously  died  in  the  village  and  vicinity  were  buried 
in  the  first  graveyard  in  East  Lewistown  (the  site  of  the 
little  East  Primary  schoolhouse).  Two  of  the  pall-bearers 
who  attended  my  aunt's  funeral  were  the  late  Myron 
Phelps  and  John  Johnson,  then  proprietor  of  Waterford. 
Some  fifteen  persons  had  been  buried  in  the  little  east 
cemetery.  Some  of  the  bodies  were  moved  to  the  present 
cemetery,  and  others  remain  there  to  this  day. 

The  Indian  doctor  I  have  referred  to  practiced  medicine 
in  a  different  manner  from  white  doctors.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  Indians  we  got  acquainted  with  in  1821.  He 
was  about  fifty  years  old,  and  could  speak  a  little  English. 
He  was  very  friendly  with  the  white  people  and  soon 
gained  their  confidence  and  friendship.  The  Indians  re- 
garded him  as  a  very  great  man  and  had  all  confidence  in 
him  as  a  doctor.  He  lived  at  a  small  Indian  village  on 
the  bank  of  Big  Creek,  three  miles  northwest  of  Lewis- 
town,  near  the  site  of  Milton.  He  carried  his  medicines 
in  a  leathern  pouch  by  his  side,  and  rode  a  fine-looking 
black  pony.  He  practiced  among  the  Indian  families, 
and  often  attended  the  whites,  generally  giving  good  satis- 
faction. His  medicines  consisted  of  herbs,  barks,  root  ex- 
tracts and  various  oils  from  beasts,  birds  and  reptiles. 
Rattlesnake  oil  was  a  favorite  remedy.  Another  treat- 
ment was  to  sweat  or  steam  his  patient.  He  would  dig  a 
hole  10x10  inches  square  in  a  wigwam,  get  it  aglow  with 
live  coals,  and  over  this  he  would  place  his  patient  covered 
with  blankets  until  there  was  profuse  perspiration;  in 
some  cases  he  used  steam  from  a  vessel  over  the  coals. 
The  Indian  doctor  was  often  in  Lewistown,  and  sometimes 
went  even  to  Havana  to  see  the  sick.  Once  while  we  lived 
at  Havana  I  had  taken  a  serious  cold,  and  father  called 
this  Indian  doctor,  who  happened  to  be  there.  He  gave 
me  some  fine  powdered  substance  to  snuff  up  my  nose ;  it 
set  me  to  sneezing  so  dreadfully  that  my  parents  were 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  85 

alarmed,  but  the  doctor  assured  them  that  I  was  in  no 
danger.  The  sneezing  soon  ceased.  He  next  took  some 
herbs  and  barks  from  his  pouch,  made  a  poultice  of  them, 
bound  it  about  my  forehead,  and  next  day  I  was  all  right. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PIONEER      SCHOOLS. FIRST       STEEL       PENS. HOW       SOME 

YOUNG  LADIES  WERE  PUNISHED  FOR  DISOBEYING  RULES. 
FIRST   SCHOOLHOUSE  AND  ITS   CONSTRUCTION. 

A  history  of  how  the  public  schools  were  conducted  in 
the  early  settlement  of  Fulton  county  may  be  interesting 
to  some  of  the  readers  of  The  Democrat ;  so  I  will  give  a 
little  of  my  experience  and  observation  in  regard  to  some 
of  them. 

For  several  years  after  the  first  settlement  of  the  county 
there  were  no  public  school  funds  to  pay  the  teachers, 
and  when  a  school  was  needed  in  a  town  or  neighborhood 
the  teacher  would  go  around  amongst  the  patrons  of  the 
school  with  a  subscription  paper  to  see  how  many  scholars 
could  be  obtained,  and  if  enough  could  be  obtained  to  jus- 
tify him  in  teaching,  he  Avould  take  the  school.  The  term 
that  the  schools  were  taught  was  three  months,  and  the  tui- 
tion was  from  $1.50  to  $2.00  per  quarter;  and  if  the  pa- 
trons were  satisfied  with  the  teacher  they  would  engage 
him  for  another  term,  but  not  for  more  than  three  months 
at  a  time.  The  branches  taught  were  reading,  spelling, 
writing,  arithmetic,  geography  and  grammar.  The  school 
would  be  graded  into  first,  second  and  third  classes. 

In  opening  the  school  in  the  morning  the  first  class  was 
required  to  read  a  chapter  in  the  New  Testament,  and,  if 
the  chapter  was  a  short  one,  they  would  read  two  chapters, 
each  scholar  reading  one  verse.  The  teacher  would  usually 
consume  about  half  an  hour  each  forenoon  in  making  and 
repairing  pens  and  setting  copies  for  those  that  were  learn- 
ing to  write.  At  that  time  there  was  no  such  thing  in  that 


86  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

part  of  the  country  as  gold  or  steel  pens,  and  all  the  pens 
used  for  writing  were  made  from  quills  plucked  from  the 
wings  of  a  turkey  or  a  goose.  The  first  steel  pens  intro- 
duced was  about  the  year  1831.  I  remember  that  in  1831 
my  father  went  to  St.  Louis  and  laid  in  a  stock  of  goods, 
and  among  his  purchases  were  a  half  dozen  cards  of  steel 
pens.  They  came  fastened  on  cards,  a  dozen  on  a  card. 
That  was  as  many  as  any  merchant  thought  it  prudent  to 
buy  at  one  time.  The  use  of  them  was  strongly  disap- 
proved of  by  the  teachers.  They  would  tell  the  scholars 
that  they  would  never  become  good  writers  if  they  learned 
to  write  with  a  steel  pen.  The  price  they  sold  at  when 
they  first  came  in  use  was  12^  cents  a  pen.  The  steel 
pens  at  first  used  were  much  coarser  and  heavier  than  the 
pens  now  used,  and  a  very  great  improvement  has  been 
made  in  them  since  they  first  came  in  use. 

It  was  the  custom  in  those  times  that  when  a  teacher 
took  a  school  to  make  a  statement  to  his  scholars  of  the 
rules  and  regulations  by  which  the  school  was  to  be  gov- 
erned ;  and  if  any  of  the  scholars  disobeyed  those  orders 
and  regulations  they  were  to  be  punished,  whether  male 
or  female ;  and  it  made  no  difference  how  old,  or  how 
young,  or  how  large,  or  how  small,  they  would  all  come 
under  the  same  rule ;  and  their  rules  were  like  the  laws  of 
the  Medes  and  Persians — were  unalterable.  They  had 
two  modes  of  punishment.  One  was  to  be  whipped,  and 
the  other  to  stand  upon  a  bench  to  be  gazed  at  by  the  whole 
school  until  the  teacher  ordered  them  to  come  down. 

I  will  relate  some  of  the  circumstances  at  a  time  when 
the  school  was  taught  in  the  old  log  court  house  in  Lewis- 
town.  The  schoolteacher  was  an  old  Englishman  by  the 
name  of  John  Elliott.  He  had  only  been  a  short  time 
from  the  old  country  when  he  came  to  Lewistown  and  took 
the  school.  He  was  low  in  stature,  but  very  fleshy  and  cor- 
pulent, and  a  fair  specimen  of  a  genuine  "  John  Bull." 
One  of  the  rules  of  his  school  was  that  if  any  scholar 
should  absent  himself  from  school  for  fifteen  minutes  after 
school  was  taken  up  he  was  to  be  punished,  unless  a  satis- 
factory excuse  could  be  given.  It  was  in  the  fall  of  the 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  87 

year,  and  at  a  time  when  the  woods  around  Lewistown 
were  full  of  nuts,  wild  fruit  and  grapes.  So  one  day,  dur- 
ing the  noon  spell,  a  dozen  or  fifteen  of  us  took  a  stroll 
through  the  woods  on  the  hunt  of  nuts  and  wild  fruit.  But 
it  so  happened  that  we  ventured  so  far  away  that  we  did 
not  get  back  until  school  had  been  taken  up  about  half  an 
hour.  So,  having  broken  one  of  the  rules  of  the  school,  we 
all  had  to  be  punished.  The  boys  were  called  up,  one  at  a 
time,  and  each  received  four  or  five  strokes  across  the  back 
with  a  whip.  There  were  three  young  ladies  that  were  at- 
tending school  who  were  in  the  company  of  the  transgres- 
sors. Their  ages  ran  from  sixteen  to  eighteen,  and  thfc 
punishment  meted  out  to  them  was  that  they  were  to  go  up 
into  the  judge's  stand  and  climb  up  and  stand  upon  the 
top  of  the  judge's  writing  table.  The  young  ladies  were 
Miss  Sally  Laughton,  daughter  to  John  Laughton ;  Miss 
^ancy  Johnson,  daughter  to  William  Johnson,  who  was 
one  of  the  county  commissioners,  and  Miss  Susan  Went- 
worth,  daughter  to  Elijah  Went  worth.  They  were  amongst 
the  most  prominent  families  of  the  town.  The  young 
ladies  were  all  quite  tall,  and  as  they  stood  in  a  row  their 
heads  extended  up  to  the  upper  floor  of  the  court  house, 
and,  as  the  floor  had  been  laid  with  loose  puncheons,  the 
young  ladies  amused  the  scholars  by  raising  up  the  ends 
of  the  puncheons  on  the  top  of  their  heads.  This  so 
amused  one  of  the  small  boys  that  he  laughed  loud  enough 
to  be  heard  by  the  teacher,  who  called  him  up  to  punish 
him  for  his  rudeness,  when  he  excused  himself  by  telling 
the  teacher  that  he  could  not  help  laughing,  for  Sally 
Laughton  kept  tucking  her  head  up  in  the  loft.  After 
they  had  stood  about  twenty  minutes  on  their  perch  they 
were  ordered  to  come  down  and  to  take  their  seats.  They 
knew  very  well  that  it  would  not  have  done  any  good  to 
have  resisted  the  order  of  the  schoolteacher,  for  if  they 
had,  they  would  have  been  whipped  the  same  as  the  boys 
had  been.  Some  of  the  smaller  sized  girls  that  Avere 
among  the  truants  were  let  off  by  having  to  stand  for  a 
short  time  up  on  a  bench.  The  teacher  would  have  re- 
garded himself  as  being  recreant  in  his  duty  if  he  had  let 


88  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

anyone  escape  punishment  that  had  violated  the  rules  of 
his  school. 

The  first  schoolhouse  that  was  ever  built  in  Lewistown 
or  in  Fulton  county  was  built  on  a  lot  that  stood  imme- 
diately west  of  the  public  square.  It  was  built  of  round 
logs  14x16  feet  in  size  and  covered  with  clapboards  held 
down  with  heavy  weight  poles.  The  cracks  in  the  walls 
were  chinked  and  filled  in  with  mud.  The  floors  were  laid 
down  loose  with  hewed  puncheons.  The  door  was  made 
of  rough  boards  and  hung  on  wooden  hinges  with  wooden 
door-latch.  There  were  two  windows  large  enough  for  a 
sash  containing  six  8x10  glass,  but  as  glass  could  not  be 
obtained  at  that  time,  oiled  paper  was  substituted  for  glass. 
A  chimney  was  made  of  lath  and  made  with  a  huge  fire- 
place in  one  end  of  the  house,  large  enough  to  contain  a 
log  two  feet  in  diameter.  The  seats  were  made  from  a 
section  of  a  log  hewed  on  one  side  and  wooden  pins  driven 
in  auger  holes  for  bench  legs  with  no  backs  to  rest  the 
weary  body  against.  The  school  was  kept  in  this  log 
schoolhouse  some  two  years  and  until  the  log  court  house 
was  built;  the  school  was  then  transferred  to  the  court 
house  and  a  great  day  was  manifested  by  teachers  and 
scholars  when  the  change  was  made.  It  was  the  custom 
in  those  times  for  the  teacher  to  retain  the  scholars  in 
school  from  eight  to  nine  hours  a  day,  and  when  I  look 
back  and  think  about  how  us  poor  urchins  had  to  sit  in 
those  hard  and  rough  benches  during  those  long  and  weary 
hours  with  nothing  to  rest  our  tired  backs  against,  I  can- 
not help  thinking  that  it  was  a  most  terrible  cruel  treat- 
ment. 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  89 

CHAPTEK  XXIII. 

LETTER  FROM  MR.  JOHN  W.  PROCTOR. MY  REPLY  THERETO. 

Los  ANGELES,  CAL.,  April  12. 

Editor  Democrat:  ISTot  long  since  I  wrote  to  Mr.  H. 
L.  Ross  of  Oakland  to  thank  him  for  the  noble  sketches 
he  is  writing  for  The  Democrat,  which  have  been  so 
highly  appreciated  by  all  old  residents  of  Illinois  who 
have  seen  them.  In  my  letter  I  mentioned  the  fact  that 
I  had  attended  his  father's  funeral  (the  late  O.  M.  Ross)  ; 
that  Rev.  Robt.  Stewart  of  Canton  came  to  my  father's 
house  in  Lewistown  on  his  way  to  attend  Mr.  Ross'  funeral 
in  Havana ;  that  it  was  in  mid-winter  and  very  cold ; 
that  father  hitched  his  horses  to  a  box-sled,  and  Rev. 
Stewart,  father,  mother  and  myself,  with  sufficient  buf- 
falo robes,  were  soon  ready  for  the  long,  cold  ride,  and  that 
we  crossed  the  Illinois  river  on  the  ice.  I  was  then  a  boy 
of  eight  or  nine.  In  his  reply  Mr.  Ross  has  said  many 
things  of  great  interest  to  my  relatives,  and  I  think  they 
will  interest  many  pioneers.  So  I  have  his  consent  to 
print  his  letter.  Few  men  have  lived  in  Fulton  county 
who  have  exerted  a  greater  influence  for  good  than  H.  L. 
Ross. 

JOHN  W.  PROCTOR. 

ME.   ROSS'   LETTER. 

OAKLAND,  CAT,.,  March  20. 
MR.  JOHN  W.  PROCTOR,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

My  Dear  Old  Friend:  I  was  very  glad  to  get  your  good 
letter.  It  carried  my  mind  back  to  the  days  of  my  youth.  I 
very  well  remember  that  your  father  and  mother  attended 
the  funeral  of  my  father  in  1837.  Rev.  Robt.  Stewart  of 
Canton  came  with  them  and  preached  the  funeral  sermon. 
The  Illinois  river  had  frozen  over  a  few  days  before,  and 
was  not  thought  to  be  very  safe.  So  your  father  walked 
across  on  the  ice  and  got  a  spike  pole  out  of  the  ferry 


90  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

boat  and  tried  the  ice,  and  then  drove  the  horses  and 
sleigh  across  the  river,  while  he  walked  beside  the  sleigh, 
and  Mr.  Stewart  and  your  mother  walked  a  few  rods 
behind  the  sleigh.  I  was  attending  college  at  Jackson- 
ville at  the  time  father  died,  but  came  home  for  the 
funeral.  My  brother  Lewis  was  at  Vandalia,  and  did 
not  get  home  until  five  days  after  the  funeral.  Your 
father  and  mother  were  a  very  great  help  to  us  on  that 
occasion. 

Your  father,  as  well  as  mine,  was  engaged  in  merchan- 
dizing. They  went  to  St.  Louis  together  one  time  to 
buy  goods.  As  they  were  going  from  the  hotel  to  take  the 
steamboat,  my  father  asked  Mr.  Proctor  if  he  had  insured 
his  goods,  and  he  said  he  had  not  ;  that  he  had  hardly 
thought  it  worth  while  to  do  so.  My  father  said  he  had 
insured  his,  and  thought  it  the  best  policy.  So  Mr.  Proc- 
tor turned  about  and  went  with  my  father  to  the  insurance 
office  and  insured  his  goods.  The  boat  started  out  that 
night,  and  had  only  gone  sixteen  miles  up  the  river  when 
she  struck  a  snag  and  sunk  to  within  six  feet  of  the  up- 
per deck.  The  passengers  all  escaped.  The  next  day 
you  father  and  mine  returned  to  St.  Louis  to  draw  their 
insurance  money,  which  was  promptly  paid,  and  then  the 
oods  belonged  to  the  insurance  company.  The  officers 
of  the  insurance  company  told  them  they  could  have  half 
of  the  goods  they  would  save  from  the  wreck.  So  they 
hired  a  couple  of  small  keel-boats  at  St.  Louis  and  a  few 
men  and  went  to  the  sunken  boat  where  they  worked 
about  three  weeks  and  recovered  several  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  goods.  After  an  equal  division  of  the  goods  and 
paying  all  expenses,  they  found  that  they  had  cleared 
above  $1200  each  from  the  enterprise,  not  a  very  bad  in- 
vestment after  all. 

While  I  lived  in  the  village  of  Vermont  in  1846  we 
organized  a  Presbyterian  church  with  twelve  members, 
and  held  our  meetings  in  a  log  school  house.  We  were 
anxious  to  buy  a  lot  and  build  a  better  church  ;  but  we 
were  all  very  poor,  having  no  money  to  pay  for  the  lot. 
About  that  time  vour  father  and  mother  came  down  on  a 


EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS.  91 

visit  to  Mr.  Heizer  and  family.  Your  father  saw  our 
condition,  and  very  generously  gave  us  $100  to  buy  the 
lot.  Daniel  Baughman,  who  lived  ten  miles  north  of 
Vermont,  had  a  nice  corner  lot,  which  I  bought  of  him 
for  $65  for  the  church.  When  I  left  Vermont  the  church 
numbered  110  members,  and  their  building  still  stands 
on  the  lot  paid  for  by  your  honored  father,  William  Proc- 
tor. 

The  first  money  I  ever  earned  for  myself  was  paid  me 
by  your  father.  My  father  had  a  large  dog  that  got  to 
killing  sheep,  and  so  he  had  him  killed.  So  I  concluded 
that  I  would  skin  the  dog  and  sell  the  hide.  I  had 
watched  my  father  and  his  men  when  they  skinned  cat- 
tle, and  little  as  I  was  I  thought  I  could  skin  the  dog.  So 
I  got  my  sister  Harriet  to  hold  the  legs  while  I  did  the 
skinning.  So  when  we  got  him  skinned  I  got  a  stick, 
and  we  spread  the  hide  across  it,  I  taking  hold  of  one 
end  and  my  sister  the  other,  and  started  for  the  tanyard. 
We  then  lived  where  Major  Newton  Walker  now  lives, 
and  it  was  about  half  a  mile  to  your  father's  tanyard  [the 
present  site  of  Mr.  ITarben's  vegetable  garden  in  Lewis- 
town^-Ed.],  so  we  trudged  along,  having  to  stop  every 
few  yards  to  rest,  being  such  little  tots.  The  dog  skin  was 
pretty  heavy,  as  I  had  left  considerable  of  the  dog  with  the 
hide ;  but  we  finally  got  to  the  tanyard  with  it,  and  I  asked 
your  father  how  much  he  would  give  for  it.  He  said  as  it 
was  a  large  skin,  and  as  we  had  worked  so  hard  to  bring 
it  to  him,  he  would  give  us  a"  dollar,  which  was  twenty- 
five  cents  above  the  price.  So  he  paid  me  a  dollar,  and 
I  divided  it  with  my  little  sister,  and  I  do  not  suppose 
that  ever  a  little  boy  and  girl  went  home  feeling  happier 
than  we  did. 

When  your  father  commenced  the  tanning  business  in 
Lewistown  he  took  in  two  apprentices,  Benjamin  Scovil 
and  John  Nichols,  who  lived  with  him  four  years.  Then 
John  Nichols  went  to  Galena,  and  from  there  to  Los 
Angeles,  Cal.  I  saw  him  there  seventeen  years  ago.  He 
was  keeping  a  real  estate  office.  He  told  me  that  he  built 
the  first  frame  house  in  Los  Angeles ;  that  he  was  its  first 


EAKLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

mayor,  and  had  held  the  office  three  terms.  He  at  one  time 
owned  a  very  valuable  ranch  two  or  three  miles  from  the 
city.  He  was  an  uncle  to  Judge  H.  L.  Bryant's  wife. 
He  had  a  brother  William,  who  lived  five  miles  south  of 
Canton  on  the  Lewistown  road.  We  often  talked  about 
the  Lewistown  people.  We  went  to  school  together  in 
the  old  log  school  house  in  Lewistown.  He  told  me  that 
he  owed  everything  that  was  good  about  him  to  the  moral 
and  religious  training  he  received  from  your  father  and 
mother.  I  thought  if  he  was  still  living  in  Los  Angeles 
you  would  like  to  look  him  up. 

Yours  truly, 

H.  L.  Ross. 


Hbrabam  lincoln. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

CONDITIONS  UNDER  WHICH    I    FIRST    BECAME    ACQUAINTED 
WITH  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Editor  of  The  Fulton  Democrat:  In  earlier  years  I  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Peter 
Cartwright,  two  of  the  old  pioneers  of  Illinois,  who  lived  in 
Sangamon  County  at  the  same  time,  and  but  a  few  miles 
apart,  who  took  prominent  part  in  molding  the  destiny 
and  giving  permanent  prosperity  to  the  state  and  nation. 
They  have  passed  over  the  river  and  gone  to  their  reward 
some  thirty  years  ago,  but  for  generations  will  their  noble 
deeds  and  sacrifices  be  remembered  and  their  sacred  mem- 
ory cherished  deep  down  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful  coun- 
try and  a  generous  people.  There  are  probably  but  few 
men  now  living  that  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  better  than  I  did  in 
the  days  of  his  obscurity,  when  he -was  trying  to  make  an 
honest  living  by  honest  days'  work.  I  believe  that  I  knew 
about  every  occupation  that  he  was  engaged  in  from  the 
time  he  came  to  New  Salem  until  he  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress. Now  I  find,  in  reading  historical  sketches  in  the 
papers  and  magazines  of  the  early  life  of  Lincoln,  also  in 
some  of  his  histories,  a  good  many  mistakes.  Some  of  my 
old  friends,  and  also  my  children  and  grandchildren,  often 
ask  me  what  I  knew  about  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Peter 
Cartwright,  and  I  have  decided  to  give  the  Fulton  Demo- 
crat a  few  short  historical  sketches  of  what  I  knew  about 
them  in  the  old  pioneer  times.  What  I  shall  say  shall  be 
from  my  own  personal  knowledge  and  from  what  I  know  to 
be  authentic  and  true;  and  I  will  endeavor  to  point  out 
some  of  the  errors  and  mistakes  that  I  have  alluded  to. 

Before  I  commence  the  narrative  of  the  early  life  of  Mr. 

93 


94:  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

Lincoln  it  is  likely  some  of  the  readers  of  the  Democrat 
would  like  to  know  how  I  happened  to  become  so  well  ac- 
quainted with  such  a  distinguished  person  as  Mr.  Lincoln ; 
and  so  I  will  have  to  make  some  explanation,  and  in  doing 
so  will  have  to  state  some  circumstances  connected  with  my 
own  early  life  and  occupations. 

My  father,  Ossian  M.  Ross,  settled  in  Havana  in  1828. 
He  kept  the  ferry  across  the  Illinois  river,  built  and  kept 
the  Havana  Hotel,  carried  on  a  large  farm,  was  a  merchant 
and  the  postmaster,  and  in  addition  to  those  things  he  had 
the  mail  route  from  Springfield  to  Lewistown.  The  mail 
had  to  be  carried  twice  a  week  on  horseback,  and  I  chose, 
rather  than  to  work  on  the  farm  or  in  the  store,  to  carry  the 
mail.  The  postoffices  between  Lewistown  and  Springfield 
were  Havana,  New  Salem,  Athens  and  Sangamontown. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  where  the  mail 
had  to  be  changed  four  times  a  week,  and  I  put  up  at  the 
log  tavern  where  Mr.  Lincoln  boarded,  and  we  partook  of 
the  cornbread,  bacon  and  eggs,  which  were  our  common 
fare,  at  the  same  table.  I  would  often  assist  Mr.  Lincoln 
in  his  store  and  in  sorting  over  the  mail,  and  he  would  often 
send  packages  by  me  to  his  customers  along  the  road ;  so 
my  business  required  me  to  be  with  him  a  part  of  four  days 
in  every  week.  After  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  I 
got.  him  to  fix  up  my  title  papers  to  some  land  that  came  to 
me  from  my  father's  estate ;  and  I  have  often  met  him 
when  he  was  attending  the  circuit  court  in  Mason  county. 
The  first  court  held  in  that  county  was  at  Havana ;  I  was 
keeping  the  Havana  Hotel  at  that  time.  There  was  no 
court  house  in  the  county,  and  the  bar  room  of  the  hotel 
was  used  for  a  court  room  and  some  of  my  bed  rooms  for 
jury  rooms.  I  remember  Mr.  Lincoln  being  engaged  by 
Prank  Low  of  Havana  to  prosecute  Mr.  Coon  for  slander. 
Mr.  Lincoln  got  a  judgment  against  Coon  in  favor  of  Low 
for  some  $500. 

So  the  readers  of  The  Democrat  will  see  that  I  had  a 
pretty  good  opportunity  to  learn  something  about  Mr. 
Lincoln.  I  was  also  well  acquainted  with  William  H. 
Herndon,  who  was  his  law  partner  for  twenty  years,  and 
who  after  his  death  wrote  a  history  of  his  life.  Mr.  Hern- 


f.lli 


ABBA  IT  AM    LINCOLN.  95 

don's  father  kept  the  Herndon  Hotel  in  Springfield,  and 
when  I  carried  the  mail  I  had  to  stop  there  two  nights  in 
each  week.  William  and  myself  being  near  the  same  age 
(I  being  one  year  the  older),  we  were  a  great  deal  together 
whenever  I  was  in  Springfield;  we  were  also  both  in  the 
Jacksonville  college  at  the  same  time,  in  the  same  classes, 
and  were  roommates ;  and  so  I  had  a  pretty  good  opportun- 
ity to  know  something  about  him.  As  I  proceed  with  the 
narrative  of  what  I  know  of  the  early  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
I  may  also  state  what  I  know  of  the  early  life  of  Herndon, 
and  point  out  some  of  the  mistakes  he  has  made  in  his 
"  Historv  of  Lincoln." 


CHAPTER   II. 

LINCOLN    THE   GEOCERY   CLERK. HOW   HE   QUALIFIED  HIM- 
SELF  FOR  SURVEYOR. 

The  first  time  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  in  1832.  I  had  stopped  over  night  at  Jack  Arm- 
strong's, who  lived  on  a  farm  five  miles  northwest  of  New 
Salem.  I  there  saw  a  young  man  whom  I  had  never  met  be- 
fore, and  asked  him  who  he  was,  and  he  said  his  name  was 
Abe  Lincoln,  and  that  he  was  working  for  his  father.  He 
was  tall  and  slender,  and  was  dressed  in  common  home- 
made jeans,  about  the  same  kind  of  goods  that  the 
majority  of  the  young  men  wore  at  that  time — about  the 
same  as  I  wore  myself.  The  next  time  I  saw  Lincoln,  to 
become  acquainted  with  him,  was  at  the  log  tavern  at  New 
Salem,  kept  by  James  Rutledge.  I  was  carrying  the  mail 
from  Lewistown  to  Springfield,  and  put  up  with  the  Rut- 
ledge  tavern  where  Mr.  Lincoln  was  boarding.  He  was 
at  that  time  a  clerk  in  the  store  of  Samuel  Hill,  a  mer- 
chant of  New  Salem.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  to  New  Or- 
leans with  a  flat-boat  load  of  produce,  and  Mr.  Hill  had 
sent  by  him  100  barrels  of  flour  that  was  ground  at  the 
water  mill  at  New  Salem.  Mr.  Lincoln  sold  the  flour  at 


96  EAE.LY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

a  good  price,  and  was  so  prompt  in  paying  the  money, 
and  gave  such  good  satisfaction,  that  on  his  return  Mr. 
Hill  made  him  a  clerk  in  his  store.  Mr.  Hill  had  the 
largest  stock  of  goods  in  ISTew  Salem,  and  also  kept  the 
postoffice.  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  observed,  was  always  very  at- 
tentive t-o  business,  and  was  kind  and  obliging  to  the  cus- 
tomers of  the  store,  always  having  pleasant  things  to  say 
to  them ;  and  they  had  so  much  confidence  in  his  honesty 
that  they  preferred  to  trade  with  him  rather  than  with  Mr. 
Hill  or  the  other  clerks.  I  noticed  that  this  was  particu- 
larly true  of  the  women  customers ;  they  would  often  say 
that  they  liked  to  trade  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  they  believed 
that  he  was  honest  and  would  tell  them  the  truth  about  the 
goods. 

I  went  into  the  store  one  day  to  buy  a  pair  of  buckskin 
gloves  and  asked  him  if  he  had  a  pair  that  would  fit  me. 
He  threw  a  pair  on  the  counter.  "There  is  a  pair  of  dog- 
skin gloves  that  I  think  will  fit  you,  and  you  can  have  them 
for  seventy-five  cents."  When  he  called  them  dogskin 
gloves  I  was  surprised,  as  I  had  never  heard  of  such  a  thing 
before.  At  that  time  no  factory-made  gloves  had  ever 
been  brought  into  the  country,  and  all  the  gloves  and  mit- 
tens that  were  worn  were  made  by  hand  and  by  the  women 
of  the  neighborhood,  and  were  made  from  tanned  deer 
skins,  and  the  Indians  usually  did  the  tanning.  A  large 
buckskin,  Indian  dressed,  could  be  bought  at  that  time  for 
from  fifty  to  seventy-five  cents.  So  I  said  to  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"How  do  you  know  they  are  dogskin  gloves  ?"  I  believe 
that  he  thought  my  question  was  a  little  impudent,  and 
it  rasped  him  somewhat  that  I  had  the  audacity  to  question 
his  word.  "Well,  sir,"  said  he,  "I  will  tell  you  how  I 
know  they  are  dogskin  gloves.  Jack  Clery's  dog  killed 
Tom  Watkin's  sheep,  and  Tom  Watkin's  boy  killed  the 
dog,  and  old  John  Mounts  tanned  the  dogskin,  and  Sally 
Spears  made  the  gloves,  and  that  is  how  I  know  they  are 
dogskin  gloves."  So  I  asked  no  more  questions  about  the 
gloves,  but  paid  the  six  bits  and  took  them ;  and  I  can  truly 
say  that  I  have  worn  buckskin  and  dogskin  gloves  from  time 
to  time  for  sixty  years  since  then,  and  have  never  found 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  97 

a  pair  that  did  me  the  service  that  those  did  I  got  of  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

I  have  understood  that  Mr.  Lincoln  got  $20  a  month 
for  clerking  in  Mr.  Hill's  store,  which  was  considered 
good  wages  at  that  time,  although  he  had  to  pay  $2  a  week 
for  his  board. 

While  Mr.  Lincoln  was  clerking  in  the  store  for  $20  a 
month  Mr.  Hill  gave  him  the  privilege  of  going  out  to 
work  in  the  time  of  harvest,  where  he  could  earn  from  $1 
to  $1.25  a  day  and  his  board;  and  when  the  harvest  was 
over  he  would  take  him  back  in  the  store  again. 

In  the  fall  of  1835  my  brother  Lewis  was  a  student  in 
the  Jacksonville  college.  I  had  to  take  him  back  to  col- 
lege after  the  vacation,  and  there  met  many  of  the  boys 
who  had  returned  after  their  two  months'  rest.  Among 
these  was  Richard  Yates,  afterwards  the  great  "war  gov- 
ernor" of  Illinois.  Most  of  these  boys  had  been  at  work 
during  the  vacation — -most  of  them  on  their  father's  farm, 
while  some  of  them  had  taught  school,  and  others  clerked 
in  the  stores.  Among  them  was  a  young  man  named 
William  Green,  who  said  he  had  been  at  home  helping  his 
father  with  the  harvest.  While  there  a  young  man  named 
Abe  Lincoln  had  come  out  from  New  Salem  to  help  with 
the  harvest.  He  said  Lincoln  could  pitch  more  hay  than 
any  man  his  father  had.  When  Lincoln  found  out  that 
young  Green  had  been  to  college  he  asked  him  if  he  had 
brought  his  books  home  with  him.  He  said  he  had  never 
had  the  advantage  of  an  education,  and  said  he  would  like 
to  study  grammar  and  arithmetic,  and  asked  if  Green 
would  assist  him,  and  he  told  him  that  he  would.  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  that  the  county  surveyor  at  Springfield,  Mr. 
Calhoun,  had  been  talking  of  appointing  him  deputy  sur- 
veyor if  he  would  qualify  himself  for  the  place.  He  was 
very  anxious  to  get  the  position,  as  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  surveying  to  be  done  around  New  Salem.  So  Lincoln 
would  get  up  early  in  the  morning  and  feed  the  horses, 
and  then  with  the  help  of  Green  would  go  at  the  grammar 
and  arithmetic  until  breakfast  was  ready.  At  night  they 
would  again  resume  their  studies.  After  Lincoln  re- 


98  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

turned  to  the  store  in  New  Salem,  Green  would  take  his 
books  when  he  went  to  town,  and  they  would  study  to- 
gether under  the  shade  of  the  trees.  Green  said  he  never 
saw  another  person  who  could  learn  as  fast  as  Lincoln  did. 
It  is  a  fact  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  qualify  himself  and  was 
appointed  deputy  surveyor;  and  he  was  one  of  the  best 
surveyors  they  ever  had  in  that  part  of  the  country. 

This  William  Green  in  1875  moved  to  Warren  county, 
Illinois,  some  five  miles  from  Avon,  and  for  several  years 
was  president  of  the  Avon  Agricultural  Society.  Not 
long  after  I  visited  him,  and  he  told  me  that  he  had  gone 
to  Washington  to  see  Lincoln  while  he  was  president.  He 
said  Lincoln  was  glad  to  see  him,  throwing  his  arms  about 
his  neck  and  showing  him  many  marks  of  kindness  while 
he  remained  in  the  city.  Before  he  came  away  Mr.  Lin- 
coln introduced  him  to  some  of  his  cabinet  officers,  telling 
them  that  he  was  the  young  man  who  taught  him  grammar 
and  arithmetic  in  his  father's  barn. 

I  have  not  heard  from  Mr.  Green  in  eighteen  years ;  but 
if  he  is  still  living  he  can  tell  more  of  the  early  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  than  can  be  found  in  any  of  the  papers, 
magazines  or  histories. 


CHAPTEK  III. 

SOME      ERRORS      IN      HEENDON's      "  LIFE      OF     LINCOLN." 

ANNE     RUTLEDGE,     LINCOLN'S     FIRST     SWEETHEART,     AND 
HER    UNTIMELY   DEATH. 

The  town  of  New  Salem,  where  I  became  acquainted 
with  Lincoln,  was  laid  out  in  1829  by  John  Cameron  and 
George  Rutledge  on  a  high  piece  of  ground  overlooking  the 
Sangamon  river,  and  was  surrounded  by  fine  farming  coun- 
try. It  was  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Springfield ;  had 
some  fifty  houses,  about  one-third  frame  and  the  balance 
log;  there  were  four  stores,  postofnce,  log  tavern,  a  black- 
smith and  wagon  maker's  shop,  a  carding  machine,  and  a 
water  mill  on  the  Sangamon  river. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  99 

A  few  months  after  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  postoffice,  find- 
ing that  the  revenue  would  not  support  him,  he  took  a 
young  man  named  William  Berry  in  partnership  with 
him  and  opened  a  general  country  store.  The  stock  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  groceries,  but  they  also  had  many  notions, 
hats,  mittens,  etc.  The  entire  stock  could  not  have  been 
worth  over  $1200.  The  charge  has  been  made  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  took  out  a  license  and  kept  a  saloon  in  the  store. 
Indeed,  Judge  Douglas  in  his  debate  with  Lincoln  occa- 
sionally charged  Lincoln  that  he  had  been  engaged  in  the 
saloon  business.  Lincoln's  reply  was  that  he  had  never 
kept  a  saloon,  and  that  he  had  never  sold  a  glass  of  liquor 
over  a  counter ;  but  that  if  he  ever  had  run  a  saloon,  and 
Douglas  had  lived  in  that  neighborhood,  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  his  best  customer. 

I  am  sure  that  no  liquor  was  sold  by  the  drink  in  their 
store  while  Mr.  Lincoln  had  an  interest  in  it.  I- had  occa- 
sion to  be  in  the  store  very  often  while  I  was  carrying  the 
mail,  and  had  a  much  better  opportunity  to  know  what  was 
going  on  there  than  did  William  H.  Herndon,  who  wrote 
a  story  of  Lincoln's  life,  but  who  lived  twenty  miles  away 
from  ^ew  Salem.  I  think  that  it  is  likely  they  did  sell 
whisky  by  the  quart  and  gallon,  as  was  done  in  -every  ^ 
pioneer  store.  Indeed,  whisky  was  as  common  an  article 
of  barter  as  was  coffee,  sugar  or  tea.  The  pioneers  were 
subject  to  much  sickness,  caused  by  malarial  conditions — 
fever  and  ague,  typhoid  fever,  etc.  A  favorite  remedy  was 
bitters  made  from  barks  and  roots  and  whisky.  At  that 
time  the  co'untry  was  full  of  poisonous  snakes,  and  it  was 
a  common  thing  for  people  to  be  bitten.  The  one  remedy 
in  those  days  was  to  fill  up  the  patient  with  whisky.  The 
whisky  used  at  that  time  was  the  pure  juice  of  the  corn  or 
rye,  and  could  be  bought  at  fifty  cents  a  gallon.  We  had 
none  of  that  vile,  poisonous  stuff  that  is  now  made  from 
drugs  and  kept  for  sale  in  the  saloons. 

In  all  my  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Lincoln  I  never  knew  : 
him  to  take  a  drink  of  liquor  of  any  kind,  nor  use  tobacco 
in  any  form,  or  ever  to  use  profane  language.     His  earliest 
biographer,   W.    II.    Herndon,   claimed   that   Lincoln  did 


100  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

drink  whisky  and  swear.  It  is  claimed  that  the  swearing 
was  done  in  New  Orleans,  where  he  had  gone  with  a  flat 
boat  full  of  produce,  and  where  he  attended  an  auction  sale 
of  negroes  and  saw7  a  young  woman  two-thirds  white  being 
sold.  *  It  was  then  that  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  his  indigna- 
tion by  an  oath.  The  time  when  it  was  claimed  that  he 
drank  liquor  was  when  he  was  said  to  have  lifted  a  barrel 
of  whiskv  to  his  lips  and  drank  out  of  the  bung  hole.  I 

v  -»-  O 

am  inclined  to  believe  that  my  old  college  chum  and  room- 
mate, W.  H.  Herndon,  drew  largely  on  his  imagination 
when  he  told  these  stories. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  boarded  at  the  Rutledge  tavern, 
at  which  I  also  put  up,  as  often  as  I  went  to  New  Salem. 
It  was  a  hewed  log  house,  two  stories  high,  with  four  rooms 
above  and  four  below.  It  had  two  chimneys  with  large 
fireplaces,  and  not  a  stove  in  the  house.  The  proprietor 
was  James  Rutledge,  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  ability, 
and,  with  his  wife,  remarkably  kind  and  hospitable.  They 
had  a  large  family  of  eight  or  nine  children,  and  among 
them  was  their  daughter  Anne,  celebrated  in  song  and  story 
as  Lincoln's  sweetheart.  She  was  two  or  three  years 
younger  than  Lincoln,  of  about  medium  size,  weighing 
some  125  pounds.  She  was  very  handsome  and  attractive, 
as  well  as  industrious  and  sweet-spirited.  I  seldom  saw 
her  when  she  was  not  engaged  in  some  occupation — knit- 
ting, sewing,  waiting  on  table,  etc.  I  think  she  did  the 
sewing  for  the  entire  family.  Lincoln  was  boarding  at  the 
tavern  and  fell  deeply  in  love  with  Anne,  and  she  was  no 
less  in  love  with  him.  They  were  engaged  to  be  married, 
but  they  had  been  putting  off  the  wedding  for  a  while,  as  he 
wanted  to  accumulate  a  little  more  property  and  she  wanted 
to  go  longer  to  school. 

Before  the  time  came  when  they  were  to  be  married. 
Miss  Anne  was  taken  down  with  typhoid  fever  and  lay 
desperately  ill  four  weeks.  Lincoln  was  an  anxious  and 
constant  watcher  at  her  bedside.  The  sickness  ended  in 
her  death,  and  young  Lincoln  was  heartbroken  and  pros- 
trated. The  histories  have  not  exaggerated  his  pitiful 
grief.  For  many  days  he  was  not  able  to  attend  to  busi- 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  101 

ness.  I  believe  his  very  soul  was  wrapped  up  in  that  lovely 
girl.  It  was  his  first  love — the  holiest  thing  in  life — the 
love  that  cannot  die.  The  deepest  gloom  and  melancholy 
settled  over  his  mind.  He  would  often  say  to  his  friends : 
"  My  heart  is  buried  in  the  grave  with  that  dear  girl."  He 
would  often  go  and  sit  by  her  grave  and  read  a  little  pocket 
Testament  he  carried  with  him.  What  did  he  read  ?  I 
know  not ;  but  I'll  warrant  you  that  it  was  "  Let  not  your 
hearts  be  troubled/'  or  John's  vision  on  Patmos  with  Anne 
among  the  white-robed  throng  in  the  land  where  sickness 
and  death  are  unknown.  One  stormy  winter's  night  he 
was  at  a  friend's  house,  and  as  the  sleet  and  rain  came  down 
on  the  roof  he  sat  with  bowed  head  and  the  tears  trickled 
down  his  face.  His  friends  begged  him  to  control  his  sor- 
row. "  I  cannot,"  he  moaned,  "  while  storm  and  darkness 
are  on  her  grave."  His  friends  did  everything  that  kind- 
ness could  suggest,  but  in  vain,  to  soothe  his  sorrow. 

Anne  Rutledge  was  of  gentle  blood,  she  would  have  made 
him  a  noble  wife  in  his  humbler  earlier  years  and  in  the 
imperial  later  life.  Miss  Anne's  brother  David  took  a 
course  in  Jacksonville  College,  and  then  went  to  Lewistown 
and  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Lewis  W.  Ross  and  John  P. 
Boice.  He  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Simms,  daughter  of 
Colonel  Reuben  Simms,  and  he  afterwards  moved  to 
Petersburg  and  opened  a  law  office.  He  was  a  bright  and 
promising  man,  and  no  doubt  would  have  made  his  mark 
in  state  and  nation  but  for  his  untimely  death.  He  was 
buried  by  the  side  of  his  sister  Anne  in  the  E~ew  Salem 
cemetery'  «*  &r+  &&T^-&V?^*-  de^^y 

His  widow  married  C.  W.  Andrus,  one  of  the  prominent 
merchants  of  Havana.  Major  Newton  Walker,  L.  W. 
Ross  and  James  W.  Simms  all  married  sisters  to  Mrs. 
David  Rutledge. 

The  Rutledge  family  stood  high  in  the  Sangamon  coun- 
try. Anne's  father  was  a  South  Carolinian  of  high  birth. 
One  of  his  family  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence ; 
another  was  chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court  under  Wash- 
ington's appointment,  and  a  third  was  a  conspicuous  leader 
in  Congress.  So  Lincoln's  boyhood  love  was  of  high  and 
gentle  birth. 


102  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

LINCOLN'S  SECOND  SWEETHEART,  MARY  OWENS. — HIS  LET- 
TER IN  REGARD  TO  THE  BREAKING  OF  THE  ENGAGE- 
MENT.  FIRST  CIRCUS  OF  PIONEER  DAYS. 

One  year  after  the  sad  death  of  Anne  Rutledge,  Mr. 
Lincoln  again  fell  in  love.  Miss  Mary  Owens  was  his 
second  sweetheart.  She  came  from  Kentucky  on  a  visit 
to  a  married  sister  who  lived  near  New  Salem.  In  many 
respects  she  was  very  different  from  Anne  Rutledge.  She 
was  older  and  larger ;  she  was  finely  educated,  and  had  heen 
brought  up  in  the  most  refined  society,  and  she  dressed 
much  finer  than  any  of  the  ladies  who  lived  about  New 
Salem.  Her  fashionable  silk  dresses,  kid  shoes  and  leg- 
horn hat  were  in  striking  contrast  with  the  calico  dress, 
calfskin  shoes  and  straw  bonnet  that  Anne  had  worn. 

Miss  Owens  was  in  the  habit  of  making  frequent  visits 
to  the  postoifice  for  letters  from  her  Kentucky  home,  and 
that  was  where  Lincoln  first  became  acquainted  with  her. 
It  was  not  very  long  until  he  began  to  be  a  frequent  visitor 
at  her  sister's  home,  and  these  visits  continued  until  her 
return  to  Kentucky.  It  became  the  gossip  of  the  neigh- 
borhood that  they  were  to  be  married.  When  the  gossip 
was  repeated  to  Lincoln  by  a  friend  he  replied :  "If  ever 
that  girl  comes  back  to  New  Salem  I  am  going  to  marry 
her  in  about  three  years."  Miss  Mary  did,  in  due  time, 
return,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  marry  her,  and  I  presume 
the  reader  will  want  to  know  the  secret  of  it  all.  They 
did  not  agree,  and  she  would  not  consent  to  the  marriage. 
On  this  point  Miss  Mary  is  reported  to  have  said  that 
there  were  many  things  about  Mr.  Lincoln  that  she  liked, 
and  many  other  things  she  did  not  like,  and  the  things 
she  did  not  like  overbalanced  the  things  she  did  like.  "I 
could  not  help  admiring  Mr.  Lincoln,"  she  said,  "for  his 
honesty,  truthfulness  and  sincerity  and  goodness  of  heart ; 
but  I  think  he  was  a  little  too  presumptuous  when  he  told 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  103 

his  friend  that  if  I  ever  came  back  to  New  Salem  he  was 
going  to  marry,  me.  That  is  a  bargain  that  it  takes  two 
to  make ;  and  then  his  training  and  bringing  up  had  been 
so  different  from  my  own  and  his  awkward  and  uncouth 
behavior  was  most  disagreeable.  He  was  lacking  in  those 
little  links  which  make  up  the  chain  of  woman's  happiness. 
At  least  that  was  my  judgment.  He  was  not  the  ideal 
husband  that  I  had  pictured  to  myself  that  I  could  love, 
and  so,  when  he  asked  me  to  become  his  wife,  I  told  him 
no." 

Now  I  will  give  Mr.  Lincoln's  side  of  the  story.  He 
had  a  dear  lady  friend  whom  he  confided  in  and  advised 
with  in  many  of  his  private  affairs.  She  had  learned 
that  he  was  engaged  to  Miss  Mary  and  that  the  engage- 
ment had  been  broken  off,  and  she  wanted  to  know  the 
cause.  So  he  wrote  her  a  letter,  and  it  is  presumable  that 
he  did  not  expect  the  letter  to  go  out  of  her  possession,  un- 
less it  went  into  the  fire ;  but  as  time  went  on  it  did  get  out 
of  her  possession  and  the  following  is  a  copy  of  it : 

"  SPEINGFIELD,  April  1st,  1838. 

" Dear  Madam: — It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1836  that  a 
married  lady  of  my  acquaintance,  and  who  was  a  great 
friend  of  mine,  being  about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  father 
and  other  relatives  residing  in  Kentucky,  proposed  to  me 
that  on  her  return  she  would  bring  a  sister  of  hers  with 
her  on  condition  that  I  would  engage  to  become  her  broth- 
er-in-law. With  all  convenient  dispatch  I,  of  course,  ac- 
cepted the  proposal,  for  you  know  that  I  would  not  have 
done  otherwise  had  I  really  been  averse  to  it ;  but,  pri- 
vately between  you  and  me,  I  was  most  confoundedly  well 
pleased  with  the  project.  I  had  seen  the  said  sister  some 
three  years  before ;  thought  her  intelligent  and  agreeable, 
and  saw  no  good  objection  to  plodding  life  through  hand 
in  hand  with  her.  Time  passed  on.  The  lady  took  her 
journey  and  in  due  time  returned,  her  sister  in  company, 
sure  enough.  This  astonished  me  a  little,  for  it  appeared 
to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily  showed  that  she  was  a  trifle 
too  willing.  But  on  reflection  it  occurred  to  me  that  she 


104  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

might  have  been  prevailed  on  by  her  married  sister  to  come 
without  anything  concerning  me  ever  having  been  men- 
tioned to  her ;  and  so  I  concluded  that  if  no  other  objection 
presented  itself  I  would  consent  to  waive  this.  All  this 
occurred  to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, for,  be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  yet  seen  her  except 
about  three  years  previous,  as  above  mentioned.  In  a  few 
days  we  had  an  interview,  and,  although  I  had  seen  her 
before,  she  did  not  look  as  my  imagination  had  pictured 
her.  I  knew  she  was  over  size,  but  she  now  appeared  a 
fair  match  for  Falstaff.  I  know  she  was  called  an  old 
maid,  and  I  felt  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  at  least  half  of 
the  appellation.  But  now,  when  I  beheld  her  I  could  not 
for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of  my  mother;  and  this  not 
from  her  withered  features,  for  her  skin  was  too  full  of 
fat  to  permit  of  it  contracting  into  wrinkles ;  but  from 
her  want  of  teeth  and  weather-beaten  appearance  in 
general,  and  from  a  kind  of  notion  that  ran  in  my  head 
that  nothing  could  have  commenced  at  the  size  of  infancy 
and  reached  her  present  bulk  in  less  than  thirty-five  or 
forty  years.  In  short,  I  was  not  at  all  pleased  with  her ; 
but  what  could  I  do  ?  I  had  told  her  sister  I  would  take 
her  for  better  or  for  worse ;  and  made  it  a  point  of  honor 
and  conscience  in  all  things  to  stick  to  my  word,  especially 
if  others  had  been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which  in  this  case 
I  had  no  doubt  they  had.  I  was  now  fully  convinced  that 
no  other  man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence  the  con- 
clusion that  they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my  bargain. 
Well,  thought  I,  I  have  said  it,  and  be  the  consequences 
what  they  may  be  it  shall  not  be  my  fault  if  I  fail  to  do  it. 
At  once  I  determined  to  consider  her  my  wife,  and,  this 
done,  all  my  powers  of  discovery  were  put  to  work  in 
search  of  perfections  in  her  which  might  be  fairly  set  off 
against  her  defects.  I  tried  to  imagine  her  handsome, 
which  but  for  her  unfortunate  corpulency  was  actually 
true ;  exclusive  of  this  no  woman  that  I  had  ever  seen  had 
a  fairer  face.  I  also  tried  to  convince  myself  that  the 
mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued  than  the  person ;  and 
in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could  discover,  to  any 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  105 

with  whom.  I  had  been  acquainted.  Shortly  after  this, 
without  coming  to  any  positive  understanding  with  her, 
I  set  out  for  Vandalia  to  take  my  seat  in  the  legislature 
to  which  I  had  been  elected.  During  my  stay  there  I  had 
letters  from  her  which  did  not  change  my  opinion  of  her 
intellect  or  intention ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  confirmed  it  in 
both.  All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed  firm  as  the 
surge-repelling  rock  in  my  resolution,  I  found  that  I  was 
continually  repenting  the  rashness  that  had  led  me  to 
make  it.  After  my  return  home  I  saw  nothing  to  change 
my  opinion  of  her  in  any  particulars.  She  was  the  same, 
and  so  was  I.  I  now  spent  my  time  in  planning  how  I 
might  get  along  in  life  after  my  contemplated  change  of 
circumstances  should  have  taken  place,  and  how  I  might 
procrastinate  the  evil  day  for  a  time,  which  I  really 
dreaded,  as  much,  perhaps  more,  than  an  Irishman  does 
the  halter.  After  all  my  suffering  upon  this  deeply  in- 
teresting subject,  here  I  am  wholly,  unexpectedly  and  com- 
pletely out  of  the  scrape.  And  now  I  want  to  know  if 
you  can  guess  how  I  got  out  of  it — out  clear  in  every  sense 
of  the  term — no  violation  of  word,  honor  or  conscience  ? 
I  do  not  believe  you  can  guess,  and  so  I  might  as  well  tell 
you  at  once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was  done  in  the  manner 
following,  to  wit :  After  I  had  delayed  the  matter  as  long 
as  I  thought  I  could  in  honor  do,  I  concluded  I  might  as 
well  bring  it  to  a  consummation  without  further  delay, 
and  so  I  mustered  my  resolution  and  made  the  proposal 
to  her  direct:  but,  shocking  to  relate,  she  answered  No. 
At  first  I  supposed  she  did  so  through  an  affectation  of 
modesty,  which  I  thought  but  ill-becoming  her  under  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  her  case.  But  on  my  renewal 
of  the  charge  I  found  that  she  repelled  it  with  greater 
firmness  than  before.  I  tried  it  again  and  again,  but  with 
the  same  success,  or  rather,  with  the  same  want  of  success. 
I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up,  at  which  very  unexpect- 
edly I  found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond  endurance. 
I  was  mortified,  it  seems  to  me,  in  a  hundred  different  ways. 
My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the  reflection  that  I 
had  been  too  stupid  to  discover  her  intentions,  and  at  the 


106  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

same  time  never  doubting  that  I  understood  them  per- 
fectly; and,  also,  that  she  whom  I  had  taught  myself  to 
believe  of  all  women  would  have  been  the  last  to  reject 
me  with  all  my  greatness.  And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then 
for  the  first  time  began  to  suspect  that  I  was  really  a  little 
bit  in  love  with  her.  But  let  it  all  go.  I'll  try  and  out- 
live it.  Others  have  been  made  fools  of  by  the  girls,  but 
this  can  never  with  truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most  emphati- 
cally in  this  instance  made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have  now 
come  to  the  conclusion  never  again  to  think  of  marrying, 
and  for  this  reason :  I  can  never  be  satisfied  with  anyone 
who  would  be  blockheaded  enough  to  have  me. 

"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

The  above  mentioned  Miss  Mary  Owens  was  afterwards 
married  to  a  highly  respectable  gentleman  and  became  the 
mother  of  five  children.  She  died  July  4,  1877.  Speak- 
ing of  Mr.  Lincoln  a  short  time  before  her  death  she  said 
of  him  :  "  He  was  a  man  with  a  heart  full  of  kindness 
and  a  head  full  of  sense." 

In  the  summer  of  1833  the  first  circus  and  menagerie 
ever  known  in  the  West  was  billed  to  be  in  Springfield.  I 
was  then  carrying  the  mail  from  Springfield  to  Lewistown, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  keeping  the  postoffice  at  New  Salem. 
The  putting  up  of  the  circus  bills  created  intense  excite- 
ment in  all  the  Springfield  country.  Thousands  of  the 
pioneers,  as  well  as  myself,  had  never  seen  such  a  show. 
Although  I  lived  forty  miles  away  I  was  determined,  if 
possible,  to  go  to  Springfield  and  see  the  wonderful  parade 
(advertised  to  take  place  on  the  streets  at  1.2  o'clock),  and 
also  to  see  the  show.  I  started  at  12  o'clock  the  preceding 
night  on  horseback,  and  got  to  New  Salem  just  at  sunup 
the  next  morning.  I  went  to  the  Rutledge  tavern  to  get 
my  breakfast  and  have  my  horse  fed,  and  was  told  by  Mr. 
Eutledge  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  gone  to  the  country  the  day 
before  to  do  some  surveying,  and  he  had  not  returned ;  and 
that  Bill  Berry,  his  partner,  had  been  to  a  dance  the  night 
before,  and  that  it  did  not  break  up  until  near  daylight, 
and  that  Bill  had  filled  up  pretty  well  on  eggnogg,  and  he 


ABIiAHAM    LINCOLN.  107 

feared  I  would  have  some  trouble  in  waking  him  up  to 
change  the  mail  so  I  could  go  on  with  my  journey.  After 
breakfast  I  found  Bill  in  a  profound  slumber  in  a  little 
room  adjoining  the  postoffice.  For  half  an  hour  I  pounded 
at  the  door,  and  hallooed  and  yelled,  but  all  in  vain.  It 
would  have  taken  Gabriel's  trump  to  have  waked  him  up. 
So  I  had  to  throw  my  mail-bags  across  my  horse  and  pursue 
my  journey — or  I  would  miss  that  wonderful  parade. 

At  Sangamontown  (seven  miles  beyond  New  Salem)  I 
told  the  postmaster  about  my  trouble  at  New  Salem  and 
asked  him  to  keep  the  New  Salem  mail  until  my  return 
next  day,  when  I  would  carry  it  back.  He  did  so,  and  I 
hurried  on,  and  got  to  Springfield  in  time  to  see  the  parade 
and  show.  There  was  a  mighty  host  of  people  in  town  who 
had  come  from  far  and  near.  Some  had  come  as  far  as 
twenty  miles  in  ox  teams,  fetching  their  entire  families. 
There  probably  has  never  been  so  much  excitement  in 
Springfield  from  the  time  it  was  laid  out  as  a  town  until 
now,  except  upon  two  other  events.  The  first  was  when 
Lincoln  the  year  before  had  piloted  the  little  steamboat, 
the  Talisman,  up  the  Sangamon  river  and  landed  her  at  the 
bank  near  Springfield.  The  people  believed  that  the  San- 
gamon river  would  always  be  navigable  for  steamboats,  and 
were  wild  with  excitement  and  enthusiasm  over  the  glorious 
outlook  for  the  town's  assured  prosperity.  The  other  great 
excitement  was  when  the  State  capital  was  moved  from 
Vandalia  to  Springfield.  I  may  more  fully  allude  to  these 
other  two  events  in  a  future  sketch. 

There  were  two  things  connected  with  the  show  that  as- 
tonished the  people  most  wonderfully.  One  was  the  mon- 
ster anaconda,  a  serpent  eighteen  feet  long,  and  the  other 
was  the  young  lady  that  stood  upon  her  feet  on  the  back  of 
a  horse  and  rode  at  full  speed  around  the  ring.  If  there 
was  anything  that  would  bring  fear  and  terror  to  the  early 
settlers  it  was  the  sight  of  a  big  snake.  They  had  seen  so 
many  cases  where  people  had  been  bitten  by  snakes,  and 
the  terrible  sufferings  they  had  endured,  that  they  had  a 
good  reason  to  abhor  and  dread  a  snake.  So  when  the 
showman  took  the  monster  from  the  iron  cage,  and  it 


108  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

crawled  upon  his  shoulder,  with  its  hideous  head  extended 
far  above  him,  and  with  its  forked  tongue  darting  out  six 
inches,  and  its  baneful  eyes  that  looked  like  two  balls  of 
fire,  the  big  audience  was  transfixed  with  terror.  But  when 
the  showman  commenced  to  carry  the  hideous  thing  about 
the  ring  close  to  the  people,  the  women  commenced  scream- 
ing and  the  children  crying  in  chorus,  and  the  men  com- 
menced to  yell  for  the  snake  to  be  shut  up  in  the  cage.  And 
so  the  showman  had  to  stop  the  horrid  performance  and  put 
the  anaconda  back  into  the  iron  cage,  or  there  would  have 
been  a  general  stampede  from  the  big  tent.  But  the  people 
cautiously  thereafter  approached  the  cage  to  gaze  upon  the 
dreadful  snake. 

The  people  were  entranced  with  the  spangled  young 
woman  that  rode  at  full  speed  about  the  ring,  standing  upon 
the  horse's  back.  It  was  a  common  sight  to  see  women  and 
girls  driving  horses  while  they  held  the  plow,  or  see  them 
on  horseback  on  a  grist  of  corn  going  many  miles  to  the 
water  mills.  The  pioneer  girls  and  women,  as  a  rule,  were 
expert  horse-women  on  a  side-saddle,  or  even  bare-back. 
But  when  it  came  to  a  pretty  girl  standing  on  a  horse  going 
at  full  speed,  it  took  their  breath  and  made  their  hearts 
stand  still.  'No  mortal  of  them  could  ever  have  believed 
that  a  girl  could  do  a  thing  like  that  until  they  saw  it. 
There  had  been  no  rain  in  the  Springfield  country  for  sev- 
eral weeks,  and  the  black  dust  lay  deep  in  all  the  roads  and 
streets.  The  big  crowds  kept  it  stirred  up,  and  the  women 
and  children  in  their  holiday  clothes  were  a  sight  to  behold. 

I  learned  that  Lincoln  had  got  back  to  ISTew  Salem  a  few 
hours  after  I  passed  through,  and  was  a  little  displeased 
because  I  had  not  left  the  mail,  not  knowing  the  cause. 
With  every  man,  woman  and  child  that  could  pay  his  way 
in,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  the  show.  After  the  show  was  over 
I  met  Lincoln  on  the  street,  and  as  we  met  I  noticed  a  little 
scowl  on  his  face.  He  said  to  me :  "  How  did  it  happen 
that  you  came  through  ]$few  Salem  and  did  not  have  the 
mail  changed  ?  You  might  get  me  into  trouble  about  this. 
Suppose  the  postmaster  at  Springfield  should  report  the 
fact  to  the  department  at  Washington  that  the  mail  was  not 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  109 

opened  at  New  Salem,  but  was  brought  on  to  Springfield, 
what  would  happen  to  me  ?" 

Then  I  told  him  the  whole  story,  how  I  had  got  up  at  12 
o'clock  at  night  so  that  I  could  get  to  Springfield  to  see  the 
show  come  into  town,  and  that  I  had  never  seen  a  show,  and 
how  anxious  I  was  to  see  it,  and  how  hard  I  had  tried  to  get 
Bill  Berry  up  to  open  the  mail,  and  that  I  had  not  brought 
the  mail  to  Springfield  but  had  left  it  at  Sangamontown 
and  would  carry  it  back  to  New  Salem  in  the  morning. 
Then  Mr.  Lincoln  in  a  kind  voice  said :  "  O,  well,  in  that 
case  it  is  all  right.  Bill  Berry  ought  to  have  got  up  and 
opened  the  mail  for  you."  Then  he  said :  "  I  am  going 
home  this  evening,  and  I  will  stop  and  get  the  mail  and 
carry  it  home  with  me,"  which  I  found  next  day  that  he  had 
done. 

When  I  met  Lincoln  I  noticed  that  he  had  bought  a  new 
suit  of  clothes  and  a  new  hat,  and  while  he  stood  talking 
with  me  I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  scrutinize  his  whole 
wardrobe,  and  I  believe  I  can  remember  every  article  of  his 
clothing  as  well  as  if  I  had  only  seen  it  yesterday.  The 
coat  and  pants  were  of  brown  linen  and  the  vest  of  white 
marseilles  with  dots  of  flowers  in  it.  The  shirt  was  open 
front  with  small  pleats  buttoned  up  with  small  ivory  but- 
tons. The  collar  was  wide  and  folded  over  the  collar  of  his 
coat.  He  had  for  a  necktie  a  black  silk  handkerchief  with 
a  narrow  fringe  to  it,  and  it  was  tied  in  a  double  bow  knot. 
He  wore  a  pair  of  low  shoes  with  a  narrow  ribbon  fastened 
on  each  side  of  the  shoes,  and  they  were  tied  in  a  double 
bow  knot  over  the  instep.  He  wore  a  buckeye  hat,  made 
of  splints  from  the  buckeye  tree,  and  much  after  the 
fashion  of  straw  hats.  These  buckeye  hats  were  much 
worn  in  those  times,  and  cost  twice  as  much  as  the  straw 
hats,  or  $1.25  to  $1.50  each.  So  the  reader  may  see  how 
Mr.  Lincoln  must  have  looked  when  he  was  dressed  up  for 
the  circus. 

When  I  got  back  to  New  Salem  next  morning  I  found 
that  Lincoln  had  given  the  people  their  mail,  and  that  Bill 
Berry  had  got  sober  and  was  very  sorry  for  his  misconduct, 
and  that  Lincoln  had  washed  off  the  Springfield  black  dust 
and  was  amiable  and  happy  as  ever. 


EAKLY   PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 
LINCOLN'S  TKIP  ON  A  FLATBOAT  TO  NEW  ORLEANS. — HIS 

VISIT  TO  A  SLAVE  MARKET,  AND  HIS  AVOWED  HATRED  AND 

INTENTION  RP:GARDING  THE  INSTITUTION  OF  SLAVERY. 

In  getting  up  these  little  sketches  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln it  is  not  my  intention  to  go  into  a  general  history  of  his 
life,  for  after  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  in  1834  his 
grand  and  noble  life  was  an  open  book  and  is  known  and 
read  by  all  men,  but  to  speak  of  those  little  things  that  led 
him  up  step  by  step  to  that  honorable  and  noble  life.  It 
may  be  an  encouragement  for  many  young  men  to  follow 
his  example. 

The  first  thing  he  undertook  after  coming  to  Illinois, 
worth  mentioning,  and  that  started  him  on  his  way  to  the 
White  House,  was  his  trip  down  the  Sangamon  river  on  a 
flat  boat  loaded  down  with  produce.  He  was  twenty-one 
years  old,  dressed  in  buckskin  pants,  butternut  colored 
jeans  coat,  checked  shirt  and  straw  hat.  If  a  casual  ob- 
server had  been  told  that  the  young  man  was  starting  for  the 
White  House  at  Washington  he  would  probably  have  said 
such  a  thing  was  impossible.  But  nevertheless  such  were 
the  facts  of  the  case,  for  inside  of  that  checked  shirt  and 
jeans  coat  was  an  honest,  generous  and  noble  heart ;  inside 
of  that  straw  hat  was  a  head  filled  with  good,  solid  horse 
sense,  and  the  good  Lord  had  blessed  him  with  an  indomi- 
table will,  a  sound  body,  a  good  pair  of  eyes  and  a  good 
memory.  He  commenced  using  his  eyes  and  memory  as 
soon  as  the  boat  started  down  the  stream.  He  spied  out 
snags,  sandbars,  overhanging  trees  and  other  obstructions 
to  navigation  and  remembered  them,  which  secured  him 
the  position  of  pilot  on  a  steamboat  that  ran  up  the  Sanga- 
mon river  the  next  year.  His  boat  floated  down  the  Sanga- 
mon, Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers  to  ISTew  Orleans,  where 
he  sold  boat  and  produce  for  a  good  price.  He  remained 
there  long  enough  to  visit  the  slave  market  and  to  see  hus- 
bands and  wives,  parents  and  children  torn  from  each 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  Ill 

other's  arms  to  be  separated  perhaps  forever.  These  things 
he  also  remembered,  and  when  turning  away  he  said  to  his 
companion,  te  If  ever  I  get  a  chance  I  will  strike  that 
thing,  and  I  will  strike  it  hard  " — meaning  the  institution 
of  slavery.  As  time  rolled  on  his  opportunity  to  strike 
came  and  the  slaves  were  freed ! 

Tie  went  to  the  steamboat  landing  to  take  passage  for  St. 
Louis,  but  instead  of  paying  $40  for  a  passage  and  spend- 
ing his  time  drinking,  smoking  and  playing  cards  as  the 
other  young  men  did,  he  went  to  the  captain  and  asked  him 
if  he  wanted  another  hand  on  the  boat.  The  captain  told 
him  to  come  around  the  next  morning  and  he  could  have 
work,  so  he  got  his  passage  free  and  made  a  nice  little  sum 
of  money  besides.  When  he  got  to  St.  Louis  he  found  the 
Illinois  river  steamboat  had  just  left* and  that  there  would 
not  be  another  one  going  for  several  days.  He  left  his 
baggage  with  his  partner  and  went  across  the  country  to 
Coles  county  to  visit  his  parents,  but  did  not  stay  long,  as 
he  was  anxious  to  return  to  ISTew  Salem  and  turn  over  the 
money  to  the  man  who  had  shipped  the  produce.  That 
transaction  showed  the  people  that  he  was  capable  and  hon- 
est and  he  immediately  received  employment  as  a  clerk  and 
was  afterwards  appointed  postmaster  and  county  surveyor. 
This  was  another  step  towards  the  White  House. 

The  next  spring  he  was  looking  over  a  newspaper  and 
saw  that  a  steamboat  was  to  come  up  the  Illinois  river  with 
the  intention  of  running  up  the  Sangamon  as  far  as  Spring- 
field. Learning  what  time  she  would  reach  Beardstown 
Mr.  Lincoln  set  out  afoot  for  that  place,  and  when  the 
steamboat  Talisman  landed  and  threw  out  her  gang  plank, 
he  was  the  first  person  to  step  on  board.  He  offered  his 
services  to  pilot  the  boat  up  the  Sangamon  river,  telling 
the  captain  that  he  had  navigated  that  stream  in  a  flat  boat 
and  knew  where  all  the  obstructions  were,  so  he  was  secured 
to  pilot  the  boat  to  Springfield  and  back  for  $50.  The  run- 
ning of  a  steamboat  on  the  Sangamon  river  caused  a  won- 
derful excitement  in  Springfield,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  the 
country  round  about,  for  at  that  time  no  railroads  had  been 
built  and  the  merchants  and  farmers  had  to  haul  their  goods 


112  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

and  produce  to  and  from  St.  Louis,  a  distance  of  ninety- 
five  miles.  It  took  from  ten  days  to  two  weeks  to  make  a 
trip,  but  now  they  were  to  have  a  market  right  at  home. 

When  the  legislature  had  passed  a  law  a  few  years  before 
declaring  the  Sangamon  a  navigable  stream,  little  was 
thought  of  it.  ISTow  Lincoln  had  taken  a  flatboat  load  of 
produce  down  the  river  and  had  brought  a  steamboat  up, 
which  demonstrated  the  fact  to  a  certainty  that  Sangamon 
river  was  a  navigable  stream.  Great  crowds  of  people 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  see  her,  as  few  had 
ever  seen  a  steamboat.  She  laid  at  the  wharf  near  Spring- 
field a  week  and  during  that  time  Lincoln  was  the  hero  of 
the  occasion.  He  took  advantage  of  this  by  getting  ac- 
quainted with  the  people,  making  several  speeches  and 
shaking  hands  with  every  one.  He  got  acquainted  with 
:r  ore  people  during  that  one  week  than  he  oovild  have  met 
in  three  months  in  traveling  around  the  country.  It  was 
on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  brought  him  out 
for  the  legislature.  There  was  another  circumstance  con- 
nected with  the  running  of  the  steamboat  up  the  Saiigaiuon 
that  benefited  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  induced  almost  every  man 
who  had  land  above  high  water  to  have  it  laid  out  in  town 
lots,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  got  several  fat  jobs  of  surveying. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  become  very  popular  among  the  people 
because  he  had  been  so  fair  and  honorable  in  all  his  deal- 
ings, and  he  would  no  doubt  have  been  elected  to  the  legis- 
lature had  not  the  Democrats  put  up  grand  old  Peter  Cart- 
wright,  the  Methodist  circuit  rider  and  camp-meeting  ora- 
tor. Cartwright  had  the  advantage  because  he  had 
preached  in  every  church  and  school  house  and  at  every 
camp-meeting  in  the  county  and  had  lived  in  the  county  six 
years  longer  than  Lincoln.  He  also  had  the  advantage  in 
age,  being  forty-seven  years  old,  while  Lincoln  was  but 
twenty-three.  Cartwright  had  served  a  term  in  the  legis- 
lature and  was  one  of  the  best  members  in  that  body,  there- 
fore the  people  sent  him  back  by  a  small  majority  over  Lin- 
coin.  That  was  the  only  time  Lincoln  was  ever  beaten  for 
office,  and  the  only  time  Cartwright  was  ever  beaten  for 
office  was  bv  Lincoln  in  1846,  when  they  were  running  for 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  113 

Congress.  It  was  unfortunate  for  the  people  that  both  of 
these  noble  men  could  not  have  been  elected.  Peter  Cart- 
wright  was  a  simon  pure  Andrew  Jackson  Democrat  and 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Henry  Clay  Whig. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

THE    FIRST    STEP    TO     THE     WHITE     HOUSE. THE     "  SHIRT- 
SLEEVE   COURT    IN    THE    CORN    FIELD." MR.    LINCOLN'S 

REFUSAL    OF    A   WELL-EARNED    FEE. 

In  my  last  week's  sketch  of  Lincoln  I  wanted  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  his  trip  to  New  Orleans  in  a  flatboat,  when 
he  first  saw  in  that  city  the  horrors  of  slavery,  was  the  first 
round  in  the  ladder  that  led  him  to  the  president's  chair. 
If  he  had  not  gone  to  New  Orleans  he  would  never  have 
seen  husbands  and  wives  and  parents  and  little  children 
separated  forever  at  the  auction  block,  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  his  great  heart  Avould  ever  have  been  fired  as  it  was 
with  a  deathless  hatred  of  "  the  infamy  of  infamies." 

Then  if  he  had  not  gone  with  a  flatboat  down  the  Sanga- 
mon  en  route  to  New  Orleans,  he  would  never  have  piloted 
that  steamboat  up  the  Sangamon  to  Springfield.  It  was 
this  incident  that  put  him  on  the  track  for  the  legislature. 
That  step  logically  led  him  on  to  Congress,  then  to  fight 
with  Douglas  for  a  seat  in  the  senate,  then  to  the  trium- 
phant march  to  the  presidency.  It  was  all  step  by  step  on 
the  ladder  of  fame  from  the  flatboat  to  the  president's 
chair. 

I  had  a  quarter  section  of  land,  two  miles  south  of  Ma- 
comb,  that  came  to  me  from  my  father's  estate.  It  was 
a  fine  quarter,  but  there  was  a  little  defect  in  the  title, 
which  could  be  remedied  by  the  evidence  of  a  man  named 
Hagerty,  who  lived  six  miles  west  of  Springfield  and  who 
knew  the  facts  I  wished  to  prove.  I  had  noticed  in  the 
papers  that  court  was  in  session  at  Springfield,  and  as  court 
convened  but  twice  a  year  I  immediately  started  for  that 
plaeo,  which  was  sixty  miles  from  my  home.  I  found  my 


114  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

witness  and  took  him  with  me.  On  arriving  at  Springfield 
we  went  directly  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  office,  which  was  over  a 
store  on  the  west  side  of  the  square.  I  think  the  office  was 
about  fourteen  feet  square  and  contained  two  tables,  two 
book  cases  and  four  or  five  chairs,  while  the  floor  was  per- 
fectly bare.  I  told  Mr.  Lincoln  my  business  and  showed 
him  my  title  papers,  which  he  looked  over  and  then  re- 
marked to  me,  "  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  tell  you  that  you  are 
a  little  too  late,  for  this  court  adjourned  this  morning  and 
does  not  convene  again  for  six  months,  and  Judge  Thomas 
has  gone  home.  He  lives  on  his  farm  a  mile  east  of  the 
public  square,  but,"  said  he,  "  we  will  go  and  see  him  and 
see  if  anything  can  be  done  for  you."  I  told  him  I  would 
get  a  carriage  and  we  would  drive  out,  but  he  said,  "  No ;  I 
can  walk  if  you  can."  I  said  I  would  just  as  soon  walk  as 
ride,  and  before  we  started  he  pulled  off  his  coat  and  laid  it 
on  a  chair,  taking  from  the  pocket  a  large  bandana  silk 
handkerchief  to  wipe  the  perspiration  from  his  face,  as  it 
was  a  very  warm  day  in  August.  He  struck  off  across 
the  public  square  in  his  shirt  sleeves  with  the  red  handker- 
chief in  one  hand  and  my  bundle  of  papers  in  the  other 
while  my  witness  and  I  followed. 

We  soon  came  to  Judge  Thomas'  residence,  which  was  a 
one-story  frame  house.  Mr.  Lincoln  knocked  at  the  door — 
at  that  time  there  were  no  door  bells — and  the  judge's  wife 
came  to  the  door.  Mr.  Lincoln  asked  if  the  judge  was  at 
home  and  she  replied  that  he  had  gone  to  the  north  part  of 
the  farm,  where  they  had  a  tenant  house,  to  help  his  men 
put  up  a  corn  crib.  She  said  if  we  went  the  main  road  it 
would  be  about  a  half-mile,  but  we  could  cut  across  the  corn 
field  and  it  would  not  be  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile. 
Mr.  Lincoln  said  if  she  would  show  us  the  path  we  would 
take  the  short  cut,  so  she  came  out  of  the  house  and  showed 
us  where  a  path  struck  off  across  the  field  from  their  barn. 
We  followed  this  path,  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  lead,  and  myself 
and  witness  following  in  Indian  file,  and  soon  came  to 
where  the  judge  and  his  men  were  raising  a  log  house  about 
12x20  feet  in  size,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  corn  crib  and 
hog  house.  Mr.  Lincoln  told  Judge  Thomas  how  I  had 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  115 

come  from  Fulton  county  and  brought  my  witness  to  town 
just  after  court  had  adjourned,  and  said  he  thought  he 
would  come  out  and  see  if  anything  could  be  done.  The 
judge  looked  over  the  title  papers  and  said  he  guessed  they 
could  fix  it  up,  so  he  swore  my  witness,  with  whom  he  was 
acquainted,  and  procuring  a  pen  and  ink  from  his  tenant 
fixed  the  papers. 

The  judge  and  all  the  balance  of  us  were  in  our  shirt 
sleeves,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  remarked  to  the  judge  that  it  was 
a  kind  of  a  shirt-sleeve  court.  "  Yes,"  replied  the  judge, 
"  a  shirt-sleeve  court  in  a  corn  field."  After  the  business 
had  been  transacted  Mr.  Lincoln  asked  Judge  Thomas  if 
he  did  not  want  some  help  in  rolling  up  the  logs,  and  the 
judge  replied  that  there  were  two  logs  that  were  pretty 
heavy  and  he  would  like  to  have  us  help  roll  them  up.  So 
before  we  left  we  helped  roll  these  logs  logs  up,  Mr.  Lincoln 
steering  one  end  and  the  judge  the  other.  I  offered  to  pay 
the  judge  for  taking  the  deposition  of  my  witness,  but  he 
said  he  guessed  I  had  helped  with  the  raising  enough  to  pay 
for  that  and  would  take  nothing  for  his  work.  When  we 
got  back  to  Lincoln's  office  in  town  I  think  we  had  walked 
at  least  three  miles.  Mr.  Lincoln  put  my  papers  in  a  large 
envelope  with  the  name  "  Stuart  &  Lincoln  "  printed  at  the 
top.  "  ISTow,"  said  he,  "  when  you  go  home  put  those 
papers  on  record  and  you  will  have  a  good  title  to  your 
land." 

I  then  took  out  my  pocket  book  to  pay  him  and  supposed 
he  would  charge  me  about  $10,  as  I  knew  he  was  always 
moderate  in  his  charges.  "  Now,  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  I, 
"  how  much  shall  I  pay  you  for  this  work  and  the  long  walk 
through  the  hot  sun  and  dust  ?"  He  paused  for  a  moment 
and  took  the  big  silk  handkerchief  and  wiped  the  perspira- 
tion off  that  was  running  down  his  face,  and  said :  *'  I 
guess  I  will  not  charge  you  anything  for  that.  I  will  let 
it  go  on  the  old  score."  When  he  said  that  it  broke  me  all 
up  and  I  could  not  keep  the  tears  from  running  down  my 
face,  for  I  could  recall  many  instances  where  he  had  been 
so  good  and  kind  to  me  when  I  was  carrying  the  mail ;  then 
for  him  to  say  he  would  charge  me  nothing  for  this  work 


116  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

was  more  kindness  than  I  could  stand.  I  suppose  that 
what  he  meant  by  the  old  score  was  that  I  had  occasionally 
helped  him  in  his  store  and  postoffice  and  my  father  had 
assisted  him  some  when  he  got  the  postoffice. 

Now,  there  is  something  a  little  remarkable  in  the  his- 
tory of  those  two  men  who  worked  together  rolling  up  those 
two  logs.  It  showed  that  the  prominent  men  of  that  time 
were  not  too  proud  to  engage  in  common  labor.  Judge 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  who  was  engaged  at  one  end  of  the  log, 
had  served  as  representative  in  the  Territorial  Legislature 
of  Illinois,  had  been  twice  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  once  as  a  supreme  judge,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  constitutional  convention  that  framed  the 
first  constitution  of  Illinois,  and  had  done  more 
and  had  exerted  a  greater  influence  toward  making  the 
State  of  Illinois  a  slave  .state  than  any  other  man. 
While  the  man  at  the  other  end  of  the  log  was 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  afterwards  served  in  the  Legisla- 
ture, in  Congress,  and  as  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  who  did  more  to  banish  slavery  from  the  United  States 
than  any  other  man. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HOW  LINCOLN  FIRST  EARNED  THE  SOBRIQUET  OF  "  HON- 
EST ABE." HIS  SPEECH  WINS  THE  DEBATE. CIRCUM- 
STANCES OF  HIS  -SPEECH  IN  1858  WHEN  RUNNING  FOR 
SENATOR.  • 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  first  commenced  the  practice  of  law 
there  was  nothing  that  brought  him  so  prominently  before 
the  people  as  a  lawyer  as  his  punctuality  in  collecting  debts 
for  his  clients  and  paying  over  the  money. 

At  that  time  about  two-thirds  of  all  the  business  was  done 
on  credit.  The  Illinois  merchants  would  buy  their  goods 
from  the  Eastern  and  St.  Louis  wholesale  merchants  on 
twelve  months'  credit  and  sell  them  to  the  farmers  and  me- 
chanics on  the  same  time.  The  consequence  was  that  the 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  117 

merchant's  note  would  not  be  paid  and  it  would  be  sent  to 
some  lawyer  for  collection,  and  then  there  would  be  as 
much  trouble  to  get  the  money  from  the  lawyers  as  it  was 
from  the  customer.  But  Mr.  Lincoln,  whenever  he  col- 
lected any  money,  immediately  forwarded  it  to  the  credi- 
tor, and  in  that  way  built  up  a  practice  that  extended  over 
several  counties  and  earned  for  him  the  name  of  "  Honest 
Abe  "  Lincoln, 

I  remember  meeting  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  the  spring  of  1839, 
between  Canton  and  Lewistown.  I  overtook  him  about 
two  miles  north  of  Lewistown,  and  as  we  rode  along  he  told 
me  he  had  been  attending  court  in  Knox  and  Warren  coun- 
ties and  was  on  his  way  back  to  Springfield.  As  it  was 
late  in  the  afternoon  and  the  roads  were  muddy,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln said  he  would  stay  in  Lewistown  over  night,  and  in- 
quired about  the  taverns.  I  directed  him  to  Truman 
Phelps'  tavern,  as  it  was  the  best  place,  and  he  stayed  there 
over  night.  1  remember  he  had  a  large  pair  of  port- 
manteaus on  his  saddle  which  appeared  to  be  pretty  well 
filled.  I  suppose  he  had  his  law  books  and  some  clothing 
in  them,  for  at  that  time  lawyers  who  traveled  around  the 
circuit  carried  their  law  books  with  them.  He  was  dressed 
in  a  suit  of  Kentucky  jeans,  over  which  was  a  heavy  over- 
coat having  four  capes  and  a  standing  collar  and  fastening 
with  a  hook  and  clasp.  He  also  wore  a  pair  of  green  baize 
leggings,  wrapped  two  or  three  times  around  the  leg  and 
tied  just  below  the  knee  and  pinned  at  the  top  and  bottom. 

The  night  Mr.  Lincoln  stayed  in  Lewistown  happened 
to  be  the  evening  for  the  regular  meeting  of  the  Lewistown 
lyceum,  and  he  attended.  The  meetings  of  the  lyceum  were 
largely  attended  by  both  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the 
town  and  were  held  in  the  old  Methodist  church,  two  blocks 
west  of  the  court  house.  The  subject  for  discussion  that 
evening  was  "  Which  has  done  the  most  for  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  our  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment and  free  institutions,  the  sword  or  pen?"  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  invited  to  take  part  in  the  debate,  which  he  did. 
The  men  speaking  on  the  side  of  the  sword  were  Lewis  W. 
Ross,  Richard  Johnson  and  Joseph  Sharp,  all  lawyers,  and 


118  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

those  speaking  for  the  pen  were  J.  P.  Boice  and  Abraham 
Lincoln,  both  lawyers,  and  William  Kelly,  a  merchant  of 
Lewistown.  The  speakers  for  the  sword  commenced  with 
George  Washington  and  ran  down  to  General  Jackson  and 
General  Cass  and  other  officers  who  had  gained  great  vic- 
tories by  the  sword.  When  Lincoln  commenced  his  speach 
he  eulogized  the  other  side  for  the  effort  they  had  made  but 
said  they  had  omitted  the  name  of  one  of  the  valiant  gener- 
als who  lived  in  their  own  country.  "  For  instance,"  said 
he,  u  there  is  General  Stillman,  who  led  the  volunteers  in 
the  Black  Hawk  war."  When  he  mentioned  the  name  of 
General  Stillman  a  smile  came  over  the  face  of  every  one 
present,  for  we  all  remembered  the  general's  defeat,  and 
how  Black  Hawk,  with  his  little  band  of  Indians,  chased 
him,  with  his  larger  force,  fifteen  miles  and  drove  them 
into  Fort  Dixon.  After  Mr.  Lincoln  had  joked  them  a 
little  about  their  generals  he  entered  into  the  subject  in 
earnest  and  quoted  from  the  writings  of  Patrick  Henry, 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  many  other  great  men,  which 
showed  that  he  was  well  posted  in  the  writings  and  history 
of  our  country.  He  made  a  royal  good  speech  and  the 
judges  awarded  to  his  side  the  victory,  much  to  the  gratifi- 
cation of  Messrs.  Boice  and  Kelly. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  jeans  with  heavy 
boots  and  looked  like  a  farmer,  and  the  people  were  very 
much  surprised  when  they  heard  his  speech.  A  number  of 
ladies  attended  that  evening  and  I  had  walked  over  to  the 
meeting  with  Miss  Isabella  Johnson,  who  remarked  that 
she  thought  the  rough,  farming  looking  man  had  made  the 
best  speech.  Attorney  Johnson,  who  was  one  of  Lincoln's 
opponents  in  that  debate,  and  who  was  familiarly  known  as 
"  Dick "  Johnson,  came  to  California  in  1850  and  was 
elected  attorney  general  of  the  state  and  held  several  other 
important  offices.  He  came  to  see  me  after  I  came  to 
California  and  in  talking  over  old  times  asked  me  if  1  re- 
membered the  time  he  and  Lincoln  measured  the  aword 
against  the  pen  in  the  old  Methodist  church  in  Lewistown. 
He  said  he  little  thought  that  the  man  who  defeated  him  in 
that  debate  would  some  day  become  President  of  the  United 
States. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  119 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  well  posted  in  all  that  took  place  in  the 
Black  Hawk  war,  for  he  enlisted  three  times.  The  first 
time  the  volunteers  were  called  out  by  Governor  Reynolds 
it  was  for  three  months  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  Cap- 
tain of  his  company.  After  the  company  was  discharged 
it  re-enlisted  and  served  its  time  out  and  was  again  dis- 
charged, when  Mr.  Lincoln  again  re-enlisted  and  served  un- 
til the  close  of  the  war. 

I  remember  the  circumstances  connected  with  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's speech  in  Lewistown  in  August  1858,  when  he  was 
running  for  United  States  Senator  against  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  I  was  then  living  at  Vermont,  twenty  miles  from 
Lewistown,  and  drove  to  the  latter  town  with  my  wife.  She 
had  often  heard  me  speak  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  of  his  kind- 
ness to  me  when  I  was  a  lad  carrying  the  mail,  and  she 
wanted  to  see  him  and  hear  him  speak.  I  might  say  right 
here  that  we  have  been  married  for  almost  fifty-seven  years, 
and  that  is  the  only  political  meeting  she  has  ever  had  a 
disposition  to  attend.  We  stopped  at  my  brother  Lewis' 
house  and  found  Mr.  Lincoln  sitting  on  the  west  porch. 
He  and  my  brother  Lewis  had  served  together  in  the  legis- 
lature and  he  had  called  at  my  brother's  home  to  see  him. 
I  shook  hands  with  him  and  told  him  that  my  wife  and  I 
had  driven  twenty  miles  that  morning  to  hear  him  speak. 

Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  his  address  in  front  of  the  old 
court  house  on  a  platform  erected  between  two  pillars. 
There  were  seats  erected  for  400  or  500  people,  which  were 
mostly  occupied  by  ladies.  I  should  think  there  were  from 
2,000  to  3,000  people  present.  He  spoke  on  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  compromise  and  of  the  steady  and  sure  en- 
croachment of  slavery  on  the  free  territory,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered as  one  of  his  ablest  speeches.  I  got  a  front  seat,  for 
I  was  anxious  to  hear  all  he  said,  and  as  I  sat  there  my 
mind  wrent  back  twenty-five  years,  during  the  same  month, 
when  I  met  him  in  Springfield  on  the  day  of  the  big  show, 
how  he  was  dressed  on  that  day  and  how  he  catechised  me 
about  coming  through  New  Salem  without  having  the  mail 
opened — which  I  mentioned  in  a  former  article.  In  place 
of  the  short  pants  and  brown  linen  coat  and  low  shoes  tied 


120  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

across  the  instep  and  buckeye  hat,  he  wore  a  fine  light  linen 
suit,  fine  boots  and  a  silk  hat.  Major  Newton  Walker 
and  John  Proctor  accompanied  him- to  the  court  house  in  a 
fine  carriage,  and  I  think  Major  Walker  took  him  in  his 
carriage  the  next  day  to  Canton,  where  he  was  to  speak 
again. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SOME  FACTS  IN  RELATION  TO  LINCOLN'S  STOREKEEPING. 

ERROR    IN    HERNDON'S    BIOGRAPHY. — MR.    LINCOLN     A 
JUDGE  IN  HORSE-RACES. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  ran  for  the  legislature  in  1832  and 
was  defeated  by  Mr.  Cartwright  it  was  no  disparagement 
to  him,  for  Mr.  Cartwright  was  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  popular  men  in  the  country,  but  it  was  a  stimulus  to 
greater  activity  by  him,  and  it  is  probable  that  it  was  a 
providential  thing  that  he  was  not  elected,  for  he  was  only 
twenty-three  years  old  and  had  never  applied  himself  to 
that  diligent  study  which  prepared  him  for  the  great  duties 
that  he  was  afterwards  called  upon  to  perform.  After  his 
defeat  he  applied  himself  industriously  to  his  books,  so  that 
in  1334.  when  he  was  two  years  older  and  considerable 
wiser,  his  friends  brought  him  out  again  for  representa- 
tive. He  was  elected  by  a  handsome  majority  and  was 
re-elected  in  '3G,  '"38  and  '40,  serving  four  terms,  in  all 
eight  years,  and  in  1846  was  elected  to  Congress. 

I  will  now  go  back  a  little  and  state  a  few  facts  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Lincoln's  stora-keeping,  and  how  he  became  involved 
in  a  debt  that  hung  over  him  for  many  years,  for  there 
have  been  many  misstatements  regarding  it.  When  Mr. 
Lincoln  kept  the  postofiice,  the  profits  of  the  office  did  not 
afford  him  a  fair  living,  and  it  confined  him  indoors  so 
that  he  could  not  pursue  any  other  occupation.  There  was 
a  young  man  by  the  name  of  William  Berry,  who  lived 
four  miles  from  town  with  his  father,  Rev.  John  Berry, 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  121 

who  was  a  Cumberland  Presbyterian  minister  and  a  man 
of  considerable  property.  William  had  attended  the  Jack- 
sonville college  and  was  a  smart,  intelligent  young  man, 
but  inclined  to  be  a  little  bit  wild.  His  father,  knowing 
the  good  habits  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  induced  him  to  take  Wil- 
liam into  partnership,  and  they  purchased  a  store,  paying 
a  small  part  down  and  giving  their  notes  for  the  balance. 
They  kept  the  store  in  the  same  building  with  the  postoffice 
and  had  as  fair  a  trade,  I  think,  as  any  of  the  other  mer- 
chants in  the  town.  The  story  told  in  W.  H.  Herndon's 
life  of  Lincoln,  that  after  they  had  bought  the  first  store 
they  bought  a  second  and  then  a  third  store  on  credit,  and 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  tried  to  get  Berry  to  borrow  money  from 
his  father  to  buy  a  fourth  store,  is  all  a  fabrication.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  careful  in  all  his  dealings  and  was  disposed 
to  have  too  much  confidence  in  men ;  being  honest  him- 
self, he  wanted  to  believe  that  other  men  were  the  same. 
He  finally  sold  out  his  interest  to  his  partner,  who  was  to 
pay  the  debts.  But  young  Berry  soon  after  took  to  drink- 
ing, made  some  bad  debts  and  took  sick  and  died  before 
the  debt  on  the  store  was  paid.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
many  persons  at  New  Salem  that  the  father  of  William 
Berry  should  have  paid  off  the  indebtedness  and  relin- 
quished Mr.  Lincoln,  for  it  was  through  his  influence  that 
the  boy  had  been  taken  as  a  partner.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  too 
honest  to  let  the  debt  go,  and,  keeping  the  interest  up,  the 
first  money  he  could  save  from  his  salary,  when  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  in  1846,  he  sent  to  his  law  partner,  W. 
H.  Herndon,  to  pay  off  the  old  debt. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  popular  in  and  around  New 
Salem,  for  in  all  his  .dealings  he  had  been  both  honest  and 
truthful,  and  had  the  respect  of  all  who  knew  him,  which 
was  shown  in  his  race  for  the  legislature  in  1832,  when  he 
received  all  but  seven  or  eight  of  the  300  votes  in  his  pre- 
cinct. 

New  Salem,  at  the  time  Mr.  Lincoln  lived  there,  was  a 
great  place  of  resort  for  the  young  men  to  gather  on  Sat- 
urdays. The  Clary  Grove  boys,  the  Island  Grove  boys, 
the  Sangamon  River  boys  and  the  Sand  Ridge  boys, 


122  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

each  designated  by  the  part  of  the  country  from  which  they 
came,  would  gather  there  to  indulge  in  horse  racing,  foot 
racing,  wrestling,  jumping,  ball  playing  and  shooting  at  a 
mark.  Mr.  Lincoln  would  generally  take  a  lay-off  for  part 
of  the  day  and  join  in  the  sport.  He  was  very  stout  and 
active  and  was  a  match  for  any  of  them.  I  do  not  think 
he  bet  on  any  of  the  games  or  races,  but  they  had  so  much 
confidence  in  his  honesty,  and  that  he  would  see  fair  play, 
that  he  was  often  'chosen  as  a  judge  to  determine  the  win- 
ner, and  his  decisions  were  always  regarded  as  just.  He 
would  generally  speak  on  the  subject  of  internal  improve- 
ment and  of  the  great  resources  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
of  its  advantages  over  other  states,  and  of  the  wonderful 
opportunities  that  lay  in  store  for  the  young  men  of  Illi- 
nois if  they  would  only  improve  them.  In  those  speeches 
he  very  seldom  touched  on  politics,  so  everyone  was  pleased 
and  none  offended,  the  meeting  generally  closing  with  three 
cheers  for  Lincoln  and  a  general  handshaking.  The  peo- 
ple would  go  home  happy,  and  few  of  them  would  come 
in  town  again  until  the  next  Saturday. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  only  chosen  as  a  judge  in  horse 
races,  but  was  often  the  arbiter  in  disputes  between  his 
neighbors,  and  saved  them  many  expensive  law  suits.  A 
justice  of  the  peace  came  into  his  office  one  day  and  com- 
plained that  he  had  been  cruelly  wronged  by  him ;  that  he 
had  deprived  him  of  many  fine  fees  by  interfering  with  his 
business.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  that  he  could  not  bear  to 
see  his  neighbors  spend  their  money  in  litigation  and  be- 
come enemies  for  life  when  he  could  prevent  it.  When 
these  cases  were  brought  before  him  he  would  generally 
give  satisfaction  to  both  parties,  and  when  one  was  in  the 
wrong  he  would  point  out  to  him  his  error  and  convince 
him  of  it  before  he  left. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  123 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOME    INCIDENTS    OF    W.    H.    HERNDON?S    EARLY    LIFE. HIS 

FURTHER    MISSTATEMENTS   IN   REGARD   TO   LINCOLN. 

In  writing  of  the  early  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I  think 
I  had  better  give  a  sketch  of  the  early  life  of  William  H. 
Herndon,  who  was  for  twenty  years  a  law  partner  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  who  wrote  "  Herndon' s  Life  of  Lincoln," 
contained  in  two  volumes.  There  are  but  few  persons 
now  living  who  knew  Mr.  Herndon  as  well  as  I  did  in  the 
days  of  his  youth.  He  was  a  son  of  Archer  G.  Herndon, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Springfield,  who  built  and  kept 
one  of  the  first  hotels  ever  erected  in  that  city — the  Hern- 
don House.  He  was  a  prominent  politician  and  had  been 
elected  State  Senator,  besides  holding  several  other  offices 
at  different  times.  He  was  a  Whig  and  a  warm  personal 
friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

While  I  was  carrying  the  mail  I  stopped  two  nights  each 
week  at  the  Hern cl on  House,  and  there  is  where  I  became 
acquainted  with  William  Herndon.  We  were  about  the 
same  age,  he  being  fourteen  years  old,  while  I  was 
fifteen,  and  as  we  were  both  of  a  lively  disposition  and  fond 
of  sport,  we  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  together,  commenc- 
ing in  the  year  1832.  He  possessed  one  trait  of  character 
that  many  people  objected  to,  and  that  was  the  delight  he 
took  in  playing  practical  jokes.  He  did  not  seem  to  care 
how  much  misery  and  suffering  he  caused,  so  long  as  he 
had  a  little  notoriety  or  fun  out  of  it.  In  the  fall  of  1836 
my  father  sent  me  to  the  Jacksonville  college.  A  young 
man  named  Porter  from  Chicago  was  my  room  mate,  but 
after  I  had  been  there  about  a  week  Bill  Herndon  came 
up  to  our  room  and  told  me  that  he  had  come  to  attend 
college  and  wanted  to  know  if  I  would  take  him  as  a  room- 
mate, remarking  that  I  was  the  only  student  with  whom  he 
was  acquainted.  I  told  him  I  was  willing  if  Porter  would 
consent,  and  Porter  said  he  had  no  objections  if  I  could 
furnish  him  bedding. 


124:  EAKLY  PIONEEKS  AND  EVENTS. 

As  I  had  a  room  to  myself  and  a  large  bed,  I  took  Hern- 
don  in  and  we  bunked  together.  I  noticed  he  had  not 
brought  a  trunk  with  him,  and  I  asked  him  where  his  trunk 
was.  He  said  he  had  come  away  from  home  in  a  hurry  and 
did  not  bring  it,  but  that  his  folks  would  send  it  by  the  next 
stage.  Then  he  commenced  laughing,  and  I  suspected 
he  had  been  up  to  some  of  his  old  tricks,  so  I  said :  "Now, 
Bill,  you  have  been  in  some  devilment  and  you  had  to  get 
away  and  you  must  tell  us  what  it  is."  He  said  there  had 
been  an  election  for  county  officers  up  in  Sangamon  county 
and  that  one  of  the  political  parties  had  paid  him  $1.50 
to  take  some  tickets  out  to  a  precinct  a  few  miles  from 
Springfield  and  heel  them  among  the  voters.  After  he  had 
gone  a  mile  he  was  overtaken  by  a  young  man  who  had  a 
package  of  tickets  for  the  opposing  party.  The  young 
man  offered  Herndon  $1.50  to  take  his  tickets  and  distrib- 
ute them  among  the  voters  Herndon  accepted  the  offer  and 
the  first  creek  he  came  to  he  soused  the  tickets  in,  leaving 
the  men  who  would  have  voted  that  ticket  the  alternative 
of  writing  their  tickets  or  not  voting.  This  act  incited 
the  wrath  of  the  parties  who  had  employed  him  first,  so  he 
had  come  away  until  the  storm  blew  over.  He  told  the 
story  with  such  glee  and  merriment  that  it  was  evident  he 
thought  he  had  done  something  .remarkably  cute. 

Herndon  had  not  been  at  the  college  long  until  it  was 
evident  that  he  was  brim  full  of  devilment,  and  there  was 
scarcely  a  week  during  the  time  he  stayed  there  that  he 
was  not  cited  to  appear  before  the  faculty  for  some  mis- 
demeanor. It  was  not  because  there  was  anything  bad 
about  him  that  made  him  do  as  he  did,  but  he  wanted  to 
gain  notoriety  and  astonish  somebody.  After  he  left  col- 
lege he  clerked  in  a  store  in  Springfield  for  a  long  time, 
and  then  commenced  the  study  of  law.  He  applied  him- 
self to  his  studies,  and  was  about  twenty-five  years  old 
when  he  went  in  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  was  nine  years  his 
senior.  It  was  thought  a  little  strange  at  that  time  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  would  take  into  partnership  so  young  and  inex- 
perienced a  lawyer  as  Bill  Herndon.  But  he  had  his  rea- 
sons and  I  think  I  can  come  very  near  guessing  some  of 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  125 

them.  Bill's  father  had  been  a  friend  to  Lincoln  for  a 
great  many  years  and  was  a  very  influential  man  in  San- 
gamon  county.  He  had  always  helped  Lincoln  in  every 
way,  and  it  was  in  payment  for  this  kindness  that  Lincoln 
took  his  son  in  his  office.  It  was  a  parallel  case  with  that 
of  Bill  Berry,  who  Lincoln  took  in  as  a  partner  in  his  New 
Salem  store.  Boih  fathers  wanted  their  sons  in  partner- 
ship with  an  honest  man. 

Then  there  was  another  reason.  Both  of  Lincoln's  part- 
ners, John  T.  Stuart  and  Stephen  T.  Logan,  were,  like  him- 
self, aspirants  for  political  honors,  and  he  had  learned 
that  a  law  office;  could  not  prosper  when  all  the  members 
of  the  firm  wanted  to  be  Congressmen.  As  Bill  was  young 
and  showed  no  disposition  to  run  into  politics,  he  thought 
it  was  safe  to  take  him  into  partnership.  And  Bill  did 
apply  himself  to  business,  and,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  gave 
perfect  satisfaction  to  the  firm  and  to  the  people  for  whom 
he  transacted  business,  up  to  the  time  of  Lincoln's  death. 
But  for  some  unaccountable  reason,  after  Mr.  Lincoln  died 
he  commenced  drinking.  He  had  never  drank  before  in  his 
life,  and  moved  out  to  his  farm,  seven  miles  east  of  Spring- 
field, to  get  away  from  the  saloons  and  his  drinking  com- 
panions. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  perhaps  it  was  his  ruling  passion 
— to  do  something  surprising — coupled  with  the  habits  of 
his  later  years,  that  induced  him  to  make  so  many  extrav- 
agant and  untruthful  statements  in  his  "Life  of  Lincoln." 
I  will  mention  a  few  of  them.  For  instance,  his  state- 
ment that  on  his  trip  to  New  Orleans  Lincoln  bored  a 
hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  flat  boat  to  let  the  water  out  of 
course  is  untrue.  He  says  Lincoln  tried  to  drive  some 
hogs  onto  the  flatboat  and  when  they  would  not  go  he  sewed 
up  their  eyes  so  that  they  couldn't  see  where  they  were 
going,  when  the  fact  is  there  were  no  hogs  taken  on  the 
boat,  it  being  loaded  with  produce.  He  also  says  that 
Lincoln  weighed  240  pounds  when  he  lived  in  New  Salem 
and  could  lift  1,000  pounds,  and  had  been  known  to  lift 
a  barrel  of  whiskey  by  the  chimes  and  drink  out  of  the 
bung-hole ;  that  after  he  bought  the  store  in  New  Salem 


126  EAKLY  PIONEEBS  AND  EVENTS. 

he  bought  a  second,  then  a  third,  and  tried  to  borrow  money 
to  buy  the  fourth,  when  not  a  dollar  had  been  paid  on  any 
of  them.  The  facts  are  Lincoln  never  weighed  over 
175  pounds  in  his  life ;  was  never  known  to  take  a  drink  of 
liquor  out  of  anything,  and  never  purchased  but  one  store, 
and  paid  for  that.  Herndon  also  said  that  the  mail  was 
caried  through  New  Salem  in  a  four-horse  coach,  and  that 
the  postage  on  letters  was  five,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty  and 
twenty-five  cents.  The  mail  was  carried  on  horseback  and  I 
rode  the  horse,  and  the  postage  on  letters  was  6-]-,  12^,  18f 
and  25  cents,  according  to  the  distance  they  were  carried. 
He  says  the  Rutledge  tavern,  where  Lincoln  boarded,  was 
a  one-story  house  with  four  rooms,  when  in  fact  it  was  a 
two-story  eight-room  house.  I  only  make  these  statements 
to  show  that  he  knew  nothing  of  what  he  was  writing ;  that 
it  was  all  guess  work,  and  very  poor  guess  work  at  that. 

The  cruelest  and  most  outrageous  statement,  however,  in 
Herndon's  book  is  the  story  of  Lincoln  breaking  his  en- 
gagement to  Miss  Mary  Todd.  He  say  that  on  the  1st 
day  of  January,  1841,  careful  preparations  had  been  made 
at  the  Edwards  mansion  for  the  wedding.  The  house  un- 
derwent the  customary  renovation,  the  furniture  was  prop- 
erly arranged,  the  rooms  neatly  decorated,  the  supper  pre- 
pared and  the  guests  invited.  The  latter  assembled  on 
the  evening  in  question  and  waited  in  expectant  pleasure 
the  interesting  ceremony  of  the  marriage.  The  bride, 
bedecked  in  veil  and  silk  gown,  and  nervously  toying  with 
the  flowers  in  her  hair,  sat  in  the  adjoining  room.  Noth- 
ing was  lacking  but  the  groom.  For  some  strange  reason 
he  had  been  delayed.  An  hour  passed  and  the  guests,  as 
well  as  the  bride,  were  becoming  restless.  But  they  were 
all  doomed  to  disappointment.  Another  hour  passed  and 
messengers  were  sent  out  over  town,  each  returning  with 
the  same  report.  It  became  apparent  that  Lincoln,  one 
of  the  principals  in  the  little  drama,  had  purposely  failed 
to  appear.  The  bride  in  grief  dispersed  the  guests,  who 
quietly  and  wonderingly  withdrew';  the  lights  in  the  Ed- 
wards mansion  were  blown  out  and  darkness  settled  over 
all  for  the  night.  After  daylight  and  after  a  persistent 


ABKAHAM    LINCOLN.  127 

search  Lincoln's  friends  found  him.  Restless,  gloomy, 
miserable,  desperate,  he  seemed  an  object  of  pity.  His 
friends,  fearing  a  tragic  termination,  watched  him  closely 
in  their  rooms  day  and  night.  Knives,  razors  and  every 
instrument  that  could  be  used  for  self  destruction  were  re- 
moved from  his  reach. 

Now  how  any  man  can  have  the  audacity  to  fabricate 
such  a  mass  of  falsehoods  as  the  above  story  and  put  them 
in  a  book  is  beyond  my  comprehension.  There  is  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Miss  Todd  were 
engaged  at  one  time,  but  the  wedding  was  put  off  one  year 
by  mutual  consent,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  wanted  to  get  his  finan- 
cial affairs  in  a  little  better  condition  before  he  took  a  wife. 


CHAPTER  X. 

TRUE   STORY  OF  THE  LINCOLN-SHIELDS  DUEL. 

In  giving  a  short  historical  sketch  of  the  Lincoln-Shields 
duel,  as  some  of  the  historians  saw  proper  to  call  it,  I  will 
state  a  few  facts  and  circumstances,  as  I  understood  them 
at  the  time,  that  induced  Mr.  Shields  to  challenge  Mr.  Lin- 
coln to  fight  a  duel. 

William  H.  Herndon,  in  his  history  of  the  life  of  Lin- 
coln, has  appropriated  some  dozen  pages  in  telling  the  story 
of  that  duel  and  has  not  told  one-half  of  the  difficulty  that 
existed  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Shields.  He  says 
the  trouble  grew  out  of  an  article  that  appeared  in  the  San- 
gamon  Journal,  supposed  to  have  beeiJrritten  by  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, and  which  Mr.  Shields  consumed  derogatory  to  his 
character  and  standing  as  a  stato^omcer.  But  from  all  I 
could  learn  the  green-eyed  rm^rater  jealousy  had  more  to 
do  with  Mr.  Shields  wantinj^o  fight  Mr.  Lincoln  than  any 
thing  else.  Shields,  Lincoln,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and 
some  other  young  lawyers  about  Springfield  had  been  pay- 
ing considerable  attention  to  Miss  Mary  Todd,  and  Shields 
became  deeply  enamored  with  her.  He  had  served  a  term 


128  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

in  the  legislature  with  a  great  deal  of  credit  and  was  then 
holding  the  office  of  state  auditor,  and  besides  being  an  able 
lawyer  he  was  quite  popular  in  the  democratic  party.  Miss 
Mary  was  a  handsome,  brilliant  and  highly-educated 
young  lady,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  Shields  wanted  her 
to  become  his  wife,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  rival,  so  when 
that  article  appeared  in  the  Journal  it  gave  him  an  excuse 
to  challenge  Lincoln  to  mortal  combat. 

According  to  the  rules  of  dueling  the  person  challenged 
chooses  the  weapons  and  fixes  the  distance  the  combatants 
are  to  stand  apart.  Mr.  Lincoln  took  advantage  of  his 
rights  as  the  challenged  party  and  chose  as  the  weapons 
broad  swords  of  the  largest  size,  precisely  equal  in  every 
way,  and  such  as  were  used  by  the  cavalry  at  Jacksonville. 
A  plank,  ten  feet  long  and  from  nine  to  twelve  inches  wide, 
was  to  be  firmly  fixed  in  the  ground  as  the  dividing  line, 
over  which  neither  was  to  pass  his  foot  on  forfeit  of  his  life. 
Next  two  lines  were  to  be  drawn  on  the  grounbl  parallel 
with  the  board  and  the  full  length  of  the  sword  from  the 
board,  and  if  either  party  stepped  over  this  line  during  the 
contest  he  would  be  counted  as  having  been  defeated.  This 
scheme  placed  the  parties  about  six  feet  apart,  and  gave  Mr. 
'Lincoln  a  tremendous  advantage  with  his  long  legs  and 
arms,  while  Shields  was  a  short  man  with  short  arms  and 
legs.  The  result  would  be  that  Lincoln  by  stooping  over 
with  his  long  arms  could  tickle  Shields  very  uncomfortably 
about  his  ribs  with  the  point  of  his  sword,  while  Shields 
could  not  reach  Lincoln  by  twelve  or  fifteen  inches.  It 
would  have  placed  Shields  completely  at  the  mercy  of  Lin- 
coln ;  but  in  all  the  world  he  could  not  have  been  in  kinder 
hands,  for  it  was  never  in  Lincoln's  big  and  tender  heart 
to  hurt  a  human  being,  except  in  self-defense. 

But  while  the  seconds  and  friends  of  the  two  parties  were 
making  preparations  for  the  duel,  John  J.  Hardin  (one  of 
the  most  influential  men  of  the  state,  and  a  friend  of  both 
parties),  having  heard  that  they  were  going  to  fight  a  duel, 
hastened  to  the  scene  of  action  and  declared  that  the  thing 
had  to  stop,  that  there  was  nothing  to  fight  about  except  a 
miserable  little  misunderstanding  between  them.  Mr. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  129 

Hardin  told  the  seconds  to  go  to  Shields  and  have  him  with- 
draw the  offensive  and  threatening  letter  he  had  written  to 
Lincoln,  and  then  he  believed  Lincoln  would  give  him  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  whole  matter.  Mr. 
ITardin's  advice  was  taken,  and  then  Mr.  Lincoln  explained 
that  he  had  only  written  a  short  paragraph  in  The  Journal 
which  was  not  intended  to  reflect  on  Mr.  Shields'  character, 
but  was  merely  an  unmalicious  electioneering  document. 
Mr.  Shields  was  satisfied  with  the  explanation  Mr.  Lincoln 
gave,  and  the  fight  was  declared  off. 

Now  it  is  probable  that  there  was  not  another  man  in 
Sangamon  county  at  that  time  who,  if  he  had  received  such  a 
challenge,  wrould  not  at  once  have  made  up  his  mind  that  he 
had  to  back  dowTn  and  confess  that  he  was  afraid  to  fight, 
or  stand  up  and  be  shot  at.  But  not  so  with  Lincoln.  With 
his  great  mind  and  head  full  of  hard  common  sense  he  was 
able  to  solve  all  such  questions  and  come  out  victorious  with 
nobody  hurt.  Mr.  Lincoln  afterwards  told  his  friends 
that  he  did  not  want  to  hurt  Shields — that  he  had  nothing 
against  him ;  but  if  he  had  paid  no  attention  to  the  chal- 
lenge that  Shields  would  have  said  he  was  a  coward  and  had 
shown  the  white  feather,  and  would  have  crowed  over  it 
like  a  bantam  rooster,  and  he  wanted  to  teach  him  to  behave 
himself. 

Herndon's  Life  of  Lincoln  says  that  Lincoln  and  Shields 
were  to  stand  twelve  feet  apart  in  their  duel ;  it  is  certainly 
an  absurd  mistake.  At  least  I  always  understood  that  the 
distance  wyas  twice  the  length  of  one  of  the  swords  that  were 
to  be  used.  So  I  have  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Herndon  missed 
the  mark  six  feet ;  but  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  him 
to  do.  I  find  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln  a  great  many  instances 
in  which  he  missed  the  mark  more  than  six  feet.  For  in- 
stance, he  describes  Mr.  Shields  at  a  hot-headed,  blustering 
Irishman  of  but  little  prominence,  when  he  was  really  a 
man  of  very  great  ability.  He  served  as  associate  justice 
of  the  supreme  court,  was  commissioner  of  the  general  land 
office,  had  the  rare  distinction  of  being  at  different  times 
United  States  senator  for  three  different  states,  and  as  a 
gallant  officer  of  the  Mexican  War  was  advanced  on  his 
merits  to  the  high  place  of  major  general. 


130  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND   EVENTS. 

After  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  president  he  remembered 
his  old  friend  that  was  a  rival  for  his  sweetheart  and  would 
have  fought  a  duel  for  her  hand,  and  showed  his  kind  arid 
forgiving  spirit  by  presenting  Shields  with  a  brigadier 
general's  commission.  So  Gen.  James  Shields  must  have 
been  a  man  of  considerable  ability  to  have  held  these  po- 
sitions, lie  was  a  grand  and  patriotic  man. 

How  wonderful  was  the  wisdom  and  tact  and  sweetness 
of  Lincoln  in  averting  with  honor  to  himself  the  duel  that 
might  have  robbed  our  country  of  two  such  men ! 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF. 

Since  I  commenced  writing  these  sketches  of  the  earlier 
life  of  Mr.  Lincoln  I  have  sometimes  been  asked  if  I  knew 
anything  about  his  religious  belief  and  how  he  stood  with 
the  orthodox  world  on  that  subject.  I  have  never  heard 
him  express  himself  on  that  question,  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  ever  made  a  public  profession  of  religion  or  con- 
nected himself  with  any  church.  But  I  know  that  he  was 
looked  upon  as  a  moral  and  exemplary  young  man.  I  have 
understood  that  a  minister  remarked  to  him  one  day  that 
he  believed  that  he  was  a  Chri  stain  man,  and  asked  why  it 
was  that  he  did  not  join  some  church  ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
said  to  have  replied  that  if  he  could  find  a  church  whose 
creed  and  requirements  could  be  simmered  down  to  the 
Savior's  condensed  statement.  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  that  he  would 
join  that  church  with  all  his  heart  and  soul. 

William  II.  Herndon  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln  has  this  to 
sa  of  him  : 


"  In  1834,  while  he  lived  in  ^ew  Salem,  and  before  he 
became  a  lawyer,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  class  of  people 
exceedingly  liberal  in  matters  of  religion.  Volney's  Ruins 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  131 

and  Paine's  Age  of  Reason,  and  other  infidel  literature 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  and  furnished  food  for  the  even- 
ing in  the  tavern  and  village  stores,  and  Lincoln  read  those 
books  and  thus  assimilated  them  into  his  own  being.  He 
prepared  an  extensive  essay,  called  by  many  a  book,  in 
which  he  made  an  argument  against  Christianity,  striving 
to  prove  that  the  Bible  was  not  inspired,  and  therefore  not 
God's  revelation,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  the  Son  of 
God.  The  manuscript  containing  these  audacious  and 
comprehensive  propositions  he  intended  to  have  published 
or  given  a  wide  circulation  in  some  other  way.  He  carried 
it  to  the  store  where  it  was  read  and  freely  discussed.  His 
friend  and  employer,  Samuel  Hill,  was  among  the  listeners, 
and  seriously  questioning  the  propriety  of  a  promising 
young  man  like  Lincoln  fathering  such  unpopular  notions, 
he  snatched  the  manuscript  from  his  hands  and  thrust  it 
into  the  stove.  The  book  went  up  in  the  flames,  and  Lin- 
coln's political  future  was  secured." 

Now  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Herndon 
drew  largely  on  his  imagination  for  this  story.  I  believe 
it  to  be  without  foundation.  As  I  have  before  stated,  my 
business  as  mail  carrier  required  me  to  be  in  Lincoln's  store 
and  postoffice  a  part  of  four  days  in  each  week  to  have  the 
mail  changed,  and  at  the  same  time  stopped  at  the  same 
tavern  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  generally  kept  my  eyes  and 
ears  open  and  knew  pretty  well  what  was  going  on.  If 
there  had  been  any  discussion  or  writing  of  the  sort  alluded 
to  by  Mr.  Herndon  I  certainly  would  have  known  it.  Mr. 
Herndon  was  then  sixteen  year  sold  and  lived  at  Springfield, 
twenty  miles  away.  His  father  kept  the  hotel  where  I 
put  up  two  nights  out  of  each  week,  and  I  generally  found 
Bill  on  hand  either  at  the  hotel  or  the  stable.  If  he  had 
been  away  from  his  business  to  visit  New  Salem  to  look  up 
Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  record,  I  think  that  I  would  have 
known  something  about  it.  It  will  be  noticed  that  Mr. 
Herndon  says  that  Mr.  Hill  threw  the  infidel  document 
into  the  stove.  Now  I  know  very  well  that  in  1834  Mr. 
Hill  never  had  a  stove  in  his  store.  I  remember  that  in 
the  Rutledge  tavern,  where  Mr.  Lincoln  boarded,  they  had 


132  EARLY  PIONEEBS  AND  EVENTS. 

a  shelf  put  up  in  the  sitting  room,  and  on  this  shelf  the 
library  was  kept.  There  were  some  twenty  five  or  thirty 
books — law  books,  histories  and  miscellaneous  works — but 
none  of  those  books  referred  to  by  Mr.  Herndon. 

I  have  always  believed  that  from  the  first  that  I  knew  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  was  a  Christian  and  one  of  the  best  men 
that  I  ever  knew.  I  think  that  all  his  acts,  letters  and  pub- 
lic documents  will  show  that  Mr.  Herndon  was  mistaken  in 
regard  to  his  infidelity. 

In  1851  Mr.  Lincoln  learned  that  his  father  was  not  ex- 
pected to  live,  and  as  he  had  sickness  in  his  own  family  and 
could  not  go  to  see  him,  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his 
half-brother : 

"  I  sincerely  hope  that  father  may  yet  recover  his  health ; 
but  at  all  events  tell  him  to  remember  and  call  upon  and 
confide  in  our  great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker  who  will 
not  turn  away  from  him  in  any  extremity.  He  notices  the 
fall  of  a  sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  head,  and 
he  will  not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in  him. 
Say  to  him  that  if  we  could  meet  now  it  is  doubtful  whether 
it  would  be  more  painful  than  pleasant ;  but  if  it  be  his  lot 
to  go  now  he  will  soon  have  a  joyful  meeting  with  the  many 
loved  ones  gone  before,  and  where  the  rest  of  us,  through 
the  help  of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join  them." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  on  his  trip  from  Springfield 
to  Washington  to  be  inaugurated  he  addressed  a  multitude 
from  the  cars  as  he  was  leaving  his  old  home  and  that 
among  other  things  he  spoke  as  follows : 

"  A  duty  devolves  upon  me  which  perhaps  is  greater  than 
has  devolved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days  of  Wash- 
ington. He  would  have  never  succeeded  except  for  the  aid 
of  Divine  Providence  upon  which  he  had  at  all  times  relied. 
I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  divine  aid 
which  sustained  him,  and  in  the  same  Almighty  be- 
ing I  place  my  reliance  for  support,  and  I  hope 
you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  divine 
assistance  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which 
success  is  certain." 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  133 

At  another  time  when  our  armies  were  meeting  reverses 
and  the  destiny  of  the  nation  seemed  to  be  hanging  in  the 
balance,  President  Lincoln  appointed  a  day  for  prayer  for 
the  success  of  the  army  in  the  following  words : 

"  And,  whereas,  when  our  beloved  country,  once  by  the 
blessing  of  God  united,  prosperous  and  happy,  is  now 
afflicted  with  factions  and  civil  wars,  it  is  peculiarly  fit  for 
us  to  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  this  terrible  visitation, 
and  in  sorrowful  remembrance  of  our  own  faults  and 
crimes  as  a  nation  and  as  individuals,  to  humble  ourselves 
before  Him  and  to  pray  for  His  mercy — to  pray  that  we 
may  be  spared  further  punishment,  though  most  justly  de- 
served ;  that  our  armies  may  be  blessed  and  made  effectual 
for  the  re-establishment  of  law  and  order  and  peace 
throughout  the  wide  extent  of  our  country,  and  that  the  in- 
estimable boon  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  earned  under 
His  guidance  and  blessing  by  the  labors  and  sufferings  of 
our  fathers,  may  be  restored  in  all  its  original  excellence. 
Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  do  appoint  the  last  Thursday  in  September  next  as 
a  day  of  humiliation,  prayer  and  fasting  for  all  the  people 
of  the  nation.  And  I  do  earnestly  recommend  to  all  the 
people,  and  especially  to  all  ministers  and  teachers  of  re- 
ligion of  all  denominations,  and  to  all  heads  of  families,  to 
observe  and  keep  that  day  according  to  their  several  creeds 
and  modes  of  worship,  in  all  humility,  and  with  all  re- 
ligious solemnity,  to  the  end  that  united  prayers  of  the 
nation  may  ascend  to  the  throne  of  grace  and  bring  down 
plentiful  blessing  upon  our  country." 

Now  there  is  not  much  skeptical  doctrines  in  these  letters 
and  utterances.  So  I  think  that  we  can  claim  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  a  pretty  good  orthodox  Christian. 


134  EAELY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

MY  VISIT  TO  THE  GRAVE  OF  THE  MARTYRED  PRESIDENT. 

About  three  years  after  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  buried  at 
Springfield  I  Avent  to  that  city  to  visit  his  resting  place 
and  to  see  my  old  college  chum,  William  II.  Herndon.  I 
hoped  we  could  go  together  to  visit  Lincoln's  grave.  But 
I  found  that  Mr.  Herndon  had  moved  seven  miles  into  the 
country,  and  that  he  had  recently  had  a  long  and  serious 
illness,  so  that  he  would  probably  not  be  able  to  come  to 
the  city  at  that  time.  I  then  learned  for  the  first  time  of 
my  old  friend's  dissipation,  following  Lincoln's  death. 
At  last  his  friends  had  to  send  him  into  the  country  to  get 
him  away  from  the  saloons  and  his  boon  companions.  No 
doubt,  in  his  dissipated  and  mentally-wrecked  condition, 
he  had  Avritten  the  false  and  absurd  things  of  Lincoln  that 
marred  his  history  of  that  great  man — a  history  that  con- 
tains much  valuable  truth  and  information.  But  his  in- 
temperate habits  and  abnormal  mental  condition  are  doubt- 
less to  blame  for  the  absurd  and  silly  stories  that  mar  the 
history  and  wrong  the  memory  of  the  good  Lincoln.  It 
is  strange  that  men  of  good  sense  will  reproduce  these  out- 
rageous falsehoods  in  their  papers  and  magazines  as  his- 
tory, when  there  is  neither  truth  nor  history  in  them. 

When  I  found  that  my  unfortunate  old  school  mate  could 
not  go  with  me,  I  went  alone  to  Lincoln's  grave.  I  was 
surprised  to  find  that  he  was  not  buried  in  the  old  cemetery 
that  I  had  often  seen,  but  that  his  burial  place  was  a  long 
way  north  of  town,  and  reached  by  street  cars.  When  I 
got  there  I  was  again  surprised  to  find  his  grave  near  the 
old  stage  road  that  ran  in  early  times  from  Springfield 
to  Peoria,  and  but  a  short  distance  from  the  old  ferry 
where  the  road  crossed  the  Sangamon  river.  All  this 
ground  was  familiar  to  me.  It  brought  to  my  mind  many 
incidents  of  an  historical  nature.  The  ferry  was  of  great 
importance  in  the  olden  times.  The  high  land  on  either 


ABEAHAM    LINCOLN.  135 

side  came  to  the  river,  and  it  could  therefore  be  crossed  in 
any  stage  of  water;  but  below  this  ferry  for  forty  miles 
the  river  was  difficult  to  cross,  because  of  the  low  bottom 
lands  that  would  overflow.  Mr.  Lincoln  informed  me  of 
this  fact,  which  he  had  discovered  while  navigating  the 
river  with  flatboats  and  his  steamboat.  So  it  was  that 
while  I  was  carrying  the  mail  in  times  of  high  water,  in- 
stead of  going  from  Athens  to  Sangamontown,  and  thus 
crossing  deep  sloughs  and  creeks,  I  kept  up  the  river  and 
crossed  this  ferry,  two  miles  from  Springfield,  and  so  trav- 
eled up  this  old  and  familiar  road  that  ran  by  Lincoln's 
grave. 

Tradition  tells  us  that  it  was  at  this  ferry  where  Mr. 
Lincoln  landed  his  canoe  when  he  first  came  down  the 
Sangamon  river  to  make  that  locality  his  home,  he  then 
being  a  mere  lad,  and  that  he  walked  up  the  same  old  road 
to  the  hamlet  of  Springfield.  It  was  at  this  ferry  landing, 
also,  that  he  landed  and  tied  up  for  a  week  the  steamboat 
Talisman,  and  stood  upon  her  upper  deck,  and  from  day  to 
day  addressed  the  great  crowds  of  people  who  flocked  to  the 
river  to  see  the  wonderful  steamboat.  These  were  the 
speeches  in  which  he  told  the  people  of  the  wonderful  pos- 
sibilities of  the  great  state,  and  of  its  opulent  future,  if 
these  possibilities  were  improved.  What  a  prophet  he 
was !  And  yet  he  was  in  full  view  of  the  knoll  on  which 
was  to  stand  his  imperial  monument  of  to-day,  and  never 
dreamed  of  the  reverence  and  honor  that  would  come  to 
him.  And  I  had  often  carried  the  mail  over  this  ferry 
and  highway  close  by  this  to  be  forever  sacred  spot,  little 
thinking  of  the  wonderful  things  to  come  in  the  following 
thirty-three  years. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  remains  were  then  enclosed  in  a  brick 
vault,  the  walls  two  feet  thick  and  twelve  feet  high.  Since 
then  the  great  monument  has  been  erected  above  his  ashes. 

I  sat  down  by  my  old  friend's  grave  while  the  old  memo- 
ries crowded  thick  and  fast  about  me.  I  recalled  my  first 
acquaintance  with  him  in  1832 ;  the  many  times  I  sat  at 
the  same  table  with  him  at  the  Hutledge  tavern  in  New 
Salem ;  of  the  many  times  we  had  joined  in  changing  the 


136  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

mail ;  I  remember  the  last  time  I  traveled  the  road,  carry- 
ing the  pouch  of  letters  his  hands  had  touched ;  of  the  time 
he  took  the  long  walk  in  the  hot  sun  to  get  Judge  Thomas  to 
fix  the  title  papers  to  my  land,  refusing  to  accept  a  fee, 
because,  he  said,  I  had  done  favors  for  him.  All  of  these 
incidents  and  numberless  acts  of  kindness  on  his  part 
crowded  my  memory.  And  then  came  before  me  his  splen- 
did future  life  with  its  mighty  honors  and  mightier  bur- 
dens; his  election  to  the  presidency;  the  long  and  terrible 
war  in  which  he  was  the  great  commander  of  army  and 
navy;  that  noble  victory  that  under  heaven  he  achieved, 
and  his  cruel  death  amidst  the  shouts  for  the  union  re- 
stored and  peace  assured  forever.  And  sitting  by  his 
grave  I  paid  the  homage  of  tears  to  my  boyhood  friend, 
the  best,  and  truest,  and  sweetest  man  I  ever  knew. 

I  believe  that  Lincoln  might  have  said,  the  day  before 
his  assassination,  as  truly  as  did  the  Apostle  Paul  before 
his  martyrdom : 

"  I  have  fought  a  good  fight ;  I  have  finished  my  course ; 
I  have  kept  the  faith ;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me 
a  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  Righteous 
Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day." 


Hnbrew  Jackson* 

PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE  OLD  HERO 
AND  STATESMAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CHURCHWELL  AND  KIRKPATRICK  FAMILIES'  PERSONAL 
ACQUAINTANCESHIP  WITH  THE  OLD  HERO  AND  STATES- 
MAN.  HISTORY  OF  THE  TRAGEDY  IN  WHICH  ANDREW 

JACKSON    PARTICIPATED. OUR    VISIT    TO    HIM    AT    THE 

HERMITAGE. STORY  OF  MRS.  JACKSON'S  DEATH. A  LIT- 
TLE ANECDOTE  ABOUT  ALEXANDER  KIRKPATRICK. 

Since  I  closed  the  several  sketches  that  I  have  been 
writing  for  The  Fulton  Democrat  containing  reminiscences 
of  the  lives  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Peter  Cartwright,  I 
have  received  letters  from  Boston,  Springfield  and  many 
other  places  requesting  me  to  furnish  them  with  copies  of 
those  letters.  Some  of  the  writers  said  they  wished  to 
write  a  history  of  the  Life  of  Lincoln  and  wished  to  copy 
those  letters  into  it.  There  have  also  been  many  requests 
that  I  should  continue  those  sketches.  But  some  of  my 
children  and  grandchildren  wish  me  to  compile  those  let- 
ters in  book  form,  and  if  I  should  do  soi  I  would  like  to 
write  also  a  few  sketches  of  what  I  knew  and  have  been 
able  to  reliably  learn  of  the  life  and  character  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  and  add  these  to  those  already  written  of  Lincoln 
and  Cartwright. 

I  hope  the  readers  will  not  think  that  I  want  to  make 
myself  conspicuous  in  writing  up  the  history  of  great  men, 
for  I  do  not.  But  if  1  can  tell  some  facts  and  give  some 
new  information  that  will  be  interesting  and  useful  to  my 
children,  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren,  of 

137 


138  EAKLY   PIONEERS   AND   EVENTS. 

which  I  have  a  pretty  fair  stock,  and  at  the  same  time 
might  interest  other  people,  it  would  be  all  that  I  could  de- 
sire. 

Peculiar  circumstances  have  given  me  the  privilege  of 
knowing  a  good  many  incidents  relating  to  that  grand  hero 
and  statesman,  Gen.  Jackson,  that  are  not  generally  known. 
1  remember  very  well  the  time  that,  he  ran  for  president 
in  1828,  and  many  of  the  events  connected  with  that  very 
exciting  campaign ;  and  I  visited  him  at  the  Hermitage 
and  witnessed  and  enjoyed  his  kind  and  generous  hospi- 
tality. I  have  also  visited  the  memorable  battle  ground  at 
New  Orleans  where  the  great  battle  was  fought  and  won 
by  Jackson  and  his  men  on  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  and 
procured  some  of  the  relics  and  trophies  of  that  wonderful 
battle. 

And  now  perhaps  some  of  the  readers  may  want  to  know 
how  it  happened  that  I,  a  resident  of  Illinois,  ever  came  to 
know  and  learn  very  much  about  Andrew  Jackson,  who 
lived  in  Tennessee,  and  what  led  me  to  make  him  a  visit 
at  the  Hermitage.  So  I  will  have  to  go  into  some  family 
affairs  to  show  how  it  happened.  So  I  would  say  in  the 
first  place  that  all  of  my  wife's  relations  back  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  were  Tennesseeans  and  wrere  raised  but  a 
short  distance  from  where  Gen.  Jackson  lived,  and  they 
all  knew  him.  My  wife's  father,  Charles  Kirkpatrick, 
who  lived  near  Canton,  111.,  and  was  an  elder  in  the  Pres- 
byterian church  of  that  place  for  many  years,  was  a  captain 
under  Gen.  Jackson  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  was  with  him 
in  many  expeditions  against  the  Creek  and  Chickasaw 
Indians,  and  knew  the  old  hero  from  his  youth  up.  My 
wife's  uncle  (a  brother  to  her  mother),  Col.  George  W. 
Churchwell,  a  prominent  lawyer  in  that  part  of  the  country 
where  General  Jackson  lived,  had  held  the  appointment  of 
Indian  agent  under  Jackson  during  a  part  of  his  presi- 
dential administration,  and  had  practiced  law  at  the  bar 
with  him,  and  had  practiced  law  before  the  general  when  he 
was  judge.  Col.  Churchwell's  wife  was  also  well  ac- 
quainted with  Jackson,  and  knew  him  at  the  time  when  he 
was  converted  and  united  with  the  Presbvterian  church, 


ANDREW   JACJvSON.  139 

and  had  sat  at  the  communion  table  with  him,  herself  be- 
ing a  Presbyterian.  Now  it  was  from  these  persons  I  got 
a  good  deal  of  my  information  about  Gen.  Jackson.  Gen. 
Churchwell  was  widely  known  throughout  that  part  of  the 
country.  In  addition  to  his  large  law  practice  he  was  a 
farmer  and  breeder  of  fine  stock.  He  had  a  farm  of  500 
acres  two  miles  north  of  Knoxville,  Tenn.  At  the  time  I 
visited  him  in  1843  he  was  the  owner  of  some  forty  slaves  of 
both  sexes  and  all  ages.  Col.  C.  and  wife  came  to  Fulton 
county  about  every  two  years  to  visit  his  sister  and  family 
and  to  look  after  some  lands  he  had  there.  It  was  on  the 
occasion  of  one  of  those  visits  that  I  met  with  him  and  bar- 
gained for  some  of  his  fine  stock.  So  in  the  fall  of  1843 
I  started  from  Havana,  111.,  with  two  horses  and  a  carriage, 
in  company  with  my  wife's  brother,  Alexander  Kirkpat- 
rick,  and  my  brother,  Pike  C.  Ross,  to  go  to  Knoxville  to 
bring  home  the  stock.  But  before  we  started  Captain 
Kirkpatrick  charged  us  very  particularly  if  we  traveled 
near  to  the  Hermitage  to  be  sure  to  stop  and  see  Gen.  Jack- 
son and  to  give  to  the  old  general  his  kind  regards,  and  to 
tell  him  the  number  of  his  regiment  and  company,  and 
what  battles  and  expeditions  they  were  in  together. 

I  stated  in  my  last  communication  that  with  my  brother 
Pike  C.  Ross  and  my  wife's  brother,  A.  C.  Kirkpatrick,  I 
had  made  arrangements  to  go  to  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  to 
bring  home  some  fine  stock  that  I  had  purchased  of  my 
wife's  uncle,  Col.  George  W.  Churchwell,  who  lived  on  a 
farm  near  that  place.  My  brother  Pike  at  that  time  was 
about  eighteen  years,  and  my  wife's  brother  was  two  years 
older.  Both  were  full  of  life  and  were  desirous  of  getting 
as  much  pleasure  out  of  the  trip  as  possible. 

We  started  from  Havana,  Mason  county,  about  the  first 
of  October,  1843,  with  a  span  of  fine  traveling  horses  and  a 
light  carriage.  Our  route  ran  through  a  section  of  coun- 
try where  I  had  traveled  as  early  as  in  1829  and  30,  and  I 
could  point  out  to  the  boys  some  of  the  old  landmarks  of 
that  early  day  and  tell  them  of  the  wonderful  changes  that 


140  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

had  taken  place  in  the  country  since  I  first  traveled  through 
it. 

In  1828  when  my  father  settled  at  Havana  there  was  not 
a  house  on  the  Springfield  road  between  Havana  and 
Miller's  Ferry  on  the  Sangamon  river,  a  distance  of  fifteen 
miles.  And  in  all  that  section  of  country  lying  between 
the  Sangamon  river  and  the  Mackinaw  river  and  running 
east  from  the  Illinois  river  for  a  distance  of  fifteen 
miles,  containing  at  least  400  square  miles,  there  was 
not  a  white  inhabitant  except  three  or  four  families 
at  Havana.  Great  numbers  of  Indians  lived  along  the 
water  courses,  and  their  Indian  ponies  by  the  thousands 
ranged  over  all  that  vast  country. 

As  we  traveled  on  we  stopped  at  the  old  town  of  New 
Salem,  Mr.  Lincoln's  old  home  and  stamping  ground, 
where  he  kept  store  and  the  post  office.  I  had  not  been 
there  since  I  carried  the  mail  some  ten  years  before,  and  I 
wanted  to  see  how  the  old  town  looked.  I  found  some  of 
the  old  buildings  still  standing,  but  most  of  them  had  been 
taken  to  Petersburg.  Mr.  Lincoln's  house,  where  he  kept 
store  and  the  post  office,  and  Samuel  Hill's  store,  where  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  clerked,  had  been  taken  away.  The  old  log 
tavern  where  Mr.  Lincoln  and  I  boarded  was  still  there, 
and  I  wanted  to  patronize  it  for  Auld  Lang  Syne's  sake, 
but  the  old  sign  with  "  The  New  Salem  Inn  "  on  it  had 
been  taken  down  and  we  could  get  no  accommodations. 
The  frame  of  the  water  mill  was  still  standing:,  but  there 
was  no  longer  a  mill  there.  There  is  a  little  history  about 
that  mill  and  the  men  who  built  it  which  I  will  relate: 
It  was  at  this  mill  that  Mr.  Lincoln  first  got  emplovment 
when  he  came  to  New  Salem,  and  it  was  at  this  mill  that 
Samuel  Hill  had  100  barrels  of  flour  made  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln took  to  New  Orleans  on  his  flat  boat.  The  mill  was 
built  by  John  Cameron  and  George  Rutledge,  who  were 
also  the  proprietors  of  New  Salem.  John  Cameron  sold 
his  interest  in  the  mill  and  moved  to  Fulton  county  and 
settled  on  the  bluffs  half  a  mile  south  of  where  Bernadotte 
now  stands.  He  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of  Bernadotte. 
He  built  a  water  mill  at  that  place  which  was  the  first  grist 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  141 

mill  ever  built  on  Spoon  river.  He  moved  from  Fulton 
County  to  Oregon,  and  from  there  to  California.  He  died 
in  Oakland,  California.  His  grandson,  W.  W.  Cameron, 
represented  Oakland  in  the  state  legislature,  and  was  also 
mayor  of  Oakland. 

The  next  place  we  came  to  that  is  worth  mentioning  was 
old  Sangamontown,  lying  on  the  Sangamon  river,  and 
about  eight  miles  from  Springfield.  It  was  laid  out  about 
the  same  time  that  Springfield  was.  It  was  at  this  place 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  built  the  flat  boat  which  he  took  to  ISTew 
Orleans,  and  it  was  at  this  place  that  Peter  Cartwright  or- 
ganized his  first  church  and  Sabbath  school  after  coming 
to  Illinois.  His  residence  was  on  a  farm  two  miles  south 
of  the  town. 

We  went  on  to  Springfield  and  there  took  the  old  stage 
road  that  ran  from  Springfield  to  Vandalia.  I  remember 
traveling  that  road,  in  1829  in  company  with  my  father 
and  a  hired  man.  We  were  taking  a  drove  of  horses  from 
Havana  to  St.  Louis  for  sale,  as  that  place  was  at  that 
time  the  principal  market  for  all  Illinois.  There  was  not 
a  house  or  habitation  from  Springfield  to  Macoupin,  a  dis- 
tance of  eighteen  miles.  The  whole  country  was  covered  with 
high  grass,  in  many  places  extending  above  the  backs  of  our 
horses.  And  then  there  was  another  thing  that  happened 
to  us  that  I  will  never  forget.  It  was  the  terrible  fight 
we  had  with  the  horseflies.  It  appeared  as  if  that  whole 
country  was  swarming  with  horseflies.  There  Avas  the 
small  fly  that  would  cover  the  head  and  ears  of  the  horses, 
the  green-headed  and  large  black  fly.  They  would  torment 
the  poor  horses  so  that  they  would  run  into  the  high  grass 
and  roll  over  to  get  rid  of  them.  Sometimes  a  half  dozen 
would  be  down  at  once.  We  had  hard  work  to  keep  the 
horses  we  rode  from  doing  the  same  thing.  When  we  got 
to  Macoupin  Point  we  were  told  that  our  trip  across  the 
prairie  ought  to  have  been  made  in  the  night,  that  during 
the  summer  season  the  stages  and  most  all  travelers  crossed 
the  prairie  at  night  to  avoid  the  flies. 

When  we  left  Sangamon  we  struck  through  for  Van- 
dalia, where  the  capital  of  the  state  had  been  located  for 


142  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

many  years  before  it  was  removed  to  Springfield.  I  had 
a  strong  desire  to  visit  the  old  town  of  Vandalia  that  I  had 
heard  so  much  talk  about.  For  a  number  of  years  after 
the  settlement  of  the  country  all  the  land  in  the  state  owned 
by  individuals  upon  which  the  taxes  had  not  been  paid 
were  sold  for  the  taxes  at  Vandalia.  I  remember  that  my 
father  and  Joel  Wright  of  Canton  and  a  few  other  men  of 
Fulton  county  were  in  the  habit  of  going  to  Vandalia  to 
attend  these  sales.  My  brother  Lewis  lived  at  Vandalia 
at  one  time  about  a  year.  It  was  in  1828  or  '29.  He 
went  there  to  learn  the  printer's  trade.  He  held  the  po- 
sition I  think  of  Avhat  that  craft  calls  the  "  printer's  devil." 
He  worked  for  Judge  James  Hall,  who  was  one  of  the  first 
editors  in  the  state.  I  think  he  moved  out  of  the  state 
and  my  brother  gave  up  the  trade.  It  was  at  Vandalia 
where  Mr.  Lincoln  first  went  to  the  legislature,  and  Major 
jSTewton  Walker  was  a  member  at  the  same  time  from  Ful- 
ton county. 

From  Vundalia  we  traveled  southeast  to  the  Ohio  river. 
We  found  the  country  from  Vandalia  to  the  river  settled 
generally  by  people  who  emigrated  from  the  slave-hold- 
ing states,  and  the  improvements  were  much  inferior  to 
the  country  we  had  passe-l  between  Springfield  arid  Van- 
dalia. Where  the  country  had  been  settled  mostly  by 
eastern  people  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  a  great 
many  people  were  still  living  in  their  log  houses,  and 
small  farms  in  cultivation ;  part  of  their  land  was  planted 
in  tobacco,  cotton  and  flax.  The  southern  counties  had 
been  settled  much  longer  than  the  northern  and  middle 
counties,  but  were  far  behind  in  improvements.  I  will 
mention  a  little  circumstance  that  happened  as  we  were 
traveling  through  that  part  of  the  country,  which  wyas  a 
little  amusing  to  my  young  companions,  and  will  demon- 
strate the  amount  of  enterprise  the  people  possessed : 
We  stopped  one  day  at  a  farm  house  to  get  a  drink  of 
water,  and  the  lady  of  the  house  came  out  with  a  gourd 
that  would  hold  a  half  gallon  and  told  us  that  if  we 
wanted  a  good  cool  drink  that  we  had  better  go  to  the 
well,  and  pointed  to  where  it  was,  and  remarked  that  if  we 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  143 

found  any  polliwigs  in  the  water  we  were  to  pound  the 
gourd  against  the  side  of  the  ladder  that  was  in  the  well 
and  they  would  all  go  to  the  bottom.  So  my  brother  Pike 
climbed  down  the  well  on  the  ladder  and  found  the  water 
alive  with  polliwigs,  but  he  obeyed  instructions  and 
pounded  the  gourd  against  the  side  of  the  ladder  and  the 
polliwigs  all  disappeared  and  he  brought  up  the  gourd  full 
of  water  without  a  polliwig  or  a  tadpole  in  it. 

We  went  on  the  Ohio  river  and  was  informed  that  the 
best  way  to  go  Knoxville  in  Tennessee  was  to  go  through 
Nashville.  So  when  we  got  to  Nashville  we  put  up  at 
the  City  Hotel,  which  we  found  afterwards  was  the  very 
hotel  where  the  wonderful  tragedy  had  taken  place  be- 
tween General  Jackson  and  the  Bentons,  where  Jackson, 
in  attempting  to  horsewhip  Thomas  H.  Benton,  was  shot  by 
Jesse  Benton,  a  brother  of  Thomas,  putting  a  ball  through 
his  arm  and  one  in  his  shoulder.  The  particulars  of  the 
fight  and  the  cause  of  it  I  will  give  further  on. 

On  our  arrival  at  Nashville,  as  stated  last  week,  we 
put  up  at  the  City  Hotel,  where  the  terrible  tragedy  had 
taken  place  between  General  Jackson  and  the  two  Ben- 
tons.  The  landlord  had  kept  the  hotel  for  a  good  many 
years,  and  was  well  acquainted  with  Gen.  Jackson.  Ther^ 
were  also  several  men  staying  at  the  hotel  who  had  been 
personally  acquainted  with  Gen.  Jackson  for  twenty  or 
thirty  years,  and  they  gave  us  a  good  deal  of  information 
about  him  and  the  circumstances  of  the  fight,  as  follows : 

Thomas  H.  Benton,  the  old  United  States  senator,  who, 
T  believe,  served  longer  in  the  senate  than  any  other  man, 
had  a  brother  Jesse  who  lived  in  Nashville,  and  who  had 
got  into  some  trouble  with  another  Nashville  man  named 
Wm.  Carroll.  Jesse  Benton  sent  Carroll  a  challenge  to 
fight,  and  he  accepted  the  challenge.  Carroll  and  Jack- 
son were  warm  friends.,  he  having  served  under  Jackson 
in  the  army  as  captain.  So  he  went  out  to  the  Hermitage 
to  see  if  Jackson  would  act  as  his  second  in  the  duel,  bur 
Jackson  objected,  saying  that  he  was  a  friend  of  the 
Bentons  and  he  did  not  want  to  do  anything  that  would 


144  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 


offend  them. 

Nashville  and  see  Jesse  Benton  and  try  to  have  the  mat- 
ter settled  between  them  without  any  fighting,  and  he 
came  to  town  and  tried  to  have  the  matter  settled  between 
them.  But  Benton  gave  him  to  understand  that  Capt. 
Carroll  would  have  to  fight  or  show  the  white  feather, 
saying  that  he  would  run  him  out  of  town.  Benton  made 
use  of  some  language  that  Jackson  thought  was  rather 
insulting,  and  so  he  consented  to  act  as  Carroll's  second 
in  the  duel.  They  went  out  and  took  a  crack  at  each 
other.  Benton  was  wounded  quite  severely  in  the  side, 
though  not  dangerously,  arid  Capt.  Carroll  was  slightly 
wounded  in  the  left  thumb.  Benton  was  laid  up  twenty 
days  with  his  wound.  Thomas  II.  Benton,  the  brother 
of  Jesse,  was  in  Washington  city  at  the  time  of  the  duel. 
When  he  received  the  news  that  his  brother  Jesse  had 
fought  a  duel  with  Capt.  Carroll  and  was  badly  wounded, 
and  that  Carroll  had  but  a  slight  wound  in  his  left  thumb, 
and  that  General  Jackson  had  been  a  second  to  his 
brother's  gntagonist,  his  wrath  and  indignation  knew  no 
bonds,  and  not  having  the  facts  in  the  case;  he  wrote  Jack- 
son very  insulting  and  abusive  letters,  accusing  him  of  all 
kinds  of  treachery  and  dishonesty,  and  some  of  his  letters 
were  published  in  the  Nashville  papers.  These  things 
aroused  all  the  old  tiger  there  was  in  Gen.  Jackson,  and 
while  his  wrath  and  high  temper  had  the  control  of  his 
better  judgment  he  made  a  solemn  vow  in  the  presence 
of  some  of  his  friends  that-  "By  the  eternal,  the  first  time 
I  get  my  eyes  on  Tom  Benton  I  will  horsewhip  him  !"  So 
in  about  a  month  after  the  duel  Avas  fought  Thomas  H. 
Benton  came  to  Nashville  and  put  up  at  the  City  Hotel. 
His  brother  Jesse  by  that  time  had  recovered  from  his 
wound  so  that  he  was  able  to  walk  about  the  streets.  In 
a  few  days  after,  Gen.  Jackson  rode  to  town  to  get  his 
mail,  left  his  horse  at  the  Nashville  Inn,  but  kept  his 
horsewhip  in  his  hand.  After  he  got  his  mail  he  walked 
past  the  City  Hotel  and  there  observed  Thomas  H.  Ben- 
ton  and  his  brother  Jesse  standing  in  front  of  the  hotel 
a-talking  He  walked  up  to  Benton  and  told  him  that  he 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  145 

had  to  take  back  those  scandalous  assertions  that  he  had 
made  about  him  or  he  would  have  to  take  a  horsewhip- 
ping. At  that  Benton  made  some  pretense  as  if  he  were 
going  to  draw  a  pistol.  Then  Jackson  drew  his  revolver 
and  told  him  that  if  he  attempted  to  draw  a  weapon  he 
would  get  the  contents  of  his  pistol.  Jesse  Benton,  who 
was  standing  near,  seeing  the  predicament  that  his 
brother  was  in  and  with  little  chance  to  defend  himself, 
drew  his  pistol  and  blazed  away  at  Jackson  and  brought 
him  to  the  ground,  pistol,  horsewhip  and  all.  His  pistol 
was  loaded  with  two  balls,  one  of  which  went  through 
Jackson's  arm  and  the  other  lodged  in  his  shoulder.  Jack- 
son carried  that  ball  in  his  shoulder  for  twenty  years. 
The  fight  created  a  wonderful  excitement  in  Nashville. 
The  news  ran  like  wildfire,  and  in  ten  minutes  after 
Jackson  was  shot  a  thousand  men  were  at  the  hotel  and 
many  fights  took  place  between  the  friends  of  the  two 
parties.  One  of  Jackson's  friends  knocked  Jesse  Ben- 
ton  down  and  pounded  him  almost  to  death.  Thos.  H. 
Benton  in  the  fight  and  skirmishing  fell  througli  an  open 
doorway  into  the  basement  of  the  hotel,  which  saved  him 
from  getting  a  terrible  whipping.  The  landlord  told  us 
that  Jackson  Avas  confined  at  the  hotel  about  three  weeks 
before  he  could  be  removed  to  his  home. 

Soon  after  this  occurrence  Thos.  H.  Benton  left  the 
state  of  Tennessee  and  moved  to  Missouri,  and  he  and 
Jackson  did  not  meet  again  until  sixteen  years  after,  when 
they  met  as  senators  in  Washington  and  had  selected  seats, 
unknown  to  either  of  them,  that  were  located  side  by  side  ; 
and  they  were  both  placed  on  some  important  committee, 
so  that  they  had  to  come  face  to  face.  But  they  at  once 
shook  hands  and  were  forever  after  good  friends. 

The  next  morning  we  started  on  our  way  to  the  Her- 
mitage, which  was  some  ten  or  eleven  miles  from  Nash- 
ville. We  traveled  on  a  fine  turnpike  road  which  ran 
through  a  fertile  country.  On  the  road  between  Nash- 
ville and  the  Hermitage  we  passed  the  spot  where  there 
had  been  built  at  one  time  a  fort  or  blockhouse,  where 
the  people  gathered  when  the  Indians  were  troublesome. 


146  EARLY   PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

This  fort,  we  were  told,  was  afterwards  purchased  by 
Gen.  Jackson  and  a  man  named  Coffee  and  converted 
into  a  storehouse,  and  there  they  kept  store  for  some  years 
under  the  name  of  Jackson.  &  Coffee.  They  bought  large 
quantities  of  cotton  and  produce  and  shipped  it  down  the 
Cumberland  and  Mississippi  rivers  in  flatboats  to  New 
Orleans.  Near  the  fort  was  one  of  the  finest  racetracks 
in  the  state,  and  there  they  also  had  a  place  erected  for 
the  exhibition  of  game  cocks,  where  people  came  from 
hundreds  of  miles  and  from  other  states  with  their  race 
horses  and  game  cocks.  Thousands  of  dollars  would  be 
bet  on  the  races  and  cock  fights. 

We  found  the  Hermitage  was  located  about  a  half  a 
mile  from  the  turnpike  road  that  ran  from  Nashville  to 
Knoxville,  but  he  had  a  private  road  that  ran  from  the 
turnpike  up  to  his  house.  Before  we  got  to  his  house  we 
passed  a  small  brick  Presbyterian  church  which  we  were 
told  that  Gen.  Jackson  had  built  on  his  own  land  for  the 
accommodation  of  his  wife  after  she  united  with  that 
church ;  and  it  was  at  this  little  church  where  he  was  con- 
verted and  joined  the  Presbyterian  church,  of  Avhich  L 
may  have  something  more  to  say.  We  drove  up  to  the 
house  and  hitched  our  horses,  opened  the  little  iron  gate 
and  went  in.  We  found  the  general  sitting  on  his  front 
piazza  reading  a  newspaper.  We  introduced  ourselves  to 
him  as  well  as  we  could,  and  told  him  we  were  from 
Illinois  and  on  our  way  to  Knoxville  to  take  home 
some  fine  stock  that  I  had  purchased  from  Col. 
George  W.  Churchwell  of  that  place,  and  told  him 
of  our  relationship  to  Capt.  Charles  Kirkpatrick, 
who  had  served  under  him,  and  gave  him  the  number  of 
the  regiment  and  the  company  that  he  commanded.  The 
general  said  he  remembered  him  very  well,  and  told  us  of 
several  expeditions  they  had  been  on  together,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  pleased  that  we  had  called  to  see  him,  and 
asked  us  to  have  our  horses  put  up  and  stay  to  dinner  with 
him.  But  I  told  him  as  it  was  early  in  the  day  we  would 
rather  drive  a  few  miles  further  before  dinner.  He  said 
he  was  always  glad  to  hear  from  any  of  the  old  comrades 


ANBEEW   JACKSON.  147 

who  were  with  him  in  the  army,  and  was  glad  to  meet  any 
of  their  relatives.  He  asked  my  brother-in-law  a  good 
many  questions  about  his  father ;  wanted  to  know  in  what 
part  of  Illinois  he  lived,  what  his  occupation  was,  and  how 
many  children  he  had.  He  said  he  knew  his  father  very 
well,  and  also  his  two  brothers  then  living  in  Tennessee. 
He  also  said  he  was  very  well  acquainted  with  his  uncle, 
George  W.  Churchwell,  who  had  held  the  office  of  Indian 
agent  when  he  was  president,  and  had  practiced  law  before 
him  when  he  was  judge.  He  also  said  that  he  knew  his 
aunt,  Col.  Churchwell' s  wife ;  that  they  were  both  Presby- 
terians. He  asked  us  if  we  would  take  a  walk  with  him 
out  in  his  orchard,  saying  he  had  some  pretty  good  eating 
apples.  But  before  we  went  to  the  orchard  he  took  us 
through  several  rooms  of  his  house.  In  one  room  he  had 
a  large  library  of  books,  with  a  number  of  fine  pictures 
hanging  around  the  walls.  In  another  room  he  had  a 
great  lot  of  old  Avar  relics,  such  as  old  swords,  pistols  and 
old  muskets,  all  with  flint  locks,  and  a  great  lot  of  old 
regimental  clothing  that  was  hanging  around  the  walls. 
Some  of  it  looked  like  it  might  have  been  worn  in  the  times 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  Hermitage  was  a  good, 
substantial  building,  but  everything  about  it  was  very 
plain.  Such  a  house  could  have  been  built  in  Illinois  at 
that  time  for  $4,000.  He  told  me  that  his  wife's  nephew, 
Mr.  Donelson  and  family,  were  living  with  him.  He  took 
us  to  his  barn  and  showed  us  a  span  of  carriage  horses  that 
he  had,  but  they  were  not  as  good  as  the  span  I  was  driving. 
His  barn  was  quite  plain — no  better  than  many  Illinois 
farmers  had  at  that  time.  We  went  from  the  barn  to  the 
orchard.  He  had  a  very  fine  orchard  and  a  most  excellent 
quality  of  fruit.  He  told  us  to  tie  up  in  our  handkerchiefs 
and  take  all  the  apples  we  wanted  to  eat  on  our  way.  So 
we  laid  in  a  pretty  fair  supply  which  lasted  till  we  got 
across  the  mountains.  I  told  the  general  that  he  had  some 
good  eating  apples  and  that  I  would  like  to  take  a  half 
dozen  home  to  my  wife  and  boy ;  that  I  had  a  boy  sixteen 
months  old,  and  I  could  tell  them  when  I  got  home  that  the 
apples  came  from  Gen.  Jackson's  orchard.  So  he  took  me 


148  EAKLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

to  a  tree  of  large  red  apples  which  he  called  winesaps ;  so 
I  gathered  the  apples  and  stored  them  away  carefully  in  my 
satchel  and  brought  them  home.     As  we  were  returning 
from  the  orchard  to  the  house  he  took  us  through  a  lot  that 
lay  a  few  rods  east  of  the  house  and  there  showed  us  the 
grave  of  his  wife.     It  was  a  plat  of  ground  ahout  8x10  feet, 
enclosed  with  a  marble  wall  rising  about  three  feet  above 
the  ground,  and  a  partition  wall  in  the  middle ;  on  one  side 
his  wife  was  laid  and  was  covered  with  a  marble  slab  on 
which  was  engraved,  "  Mrs.  Rachel  Jackson,  died  23rd 
December,  1828,  aged  sixty-one  years."     The  general  told 
us  that  when  he  died  that  he  expected  to  be  laid  by  his 
wife  in  the  enclosed  plat  of  ground.     He  spoke  of  his  poor 
health  and  said  that  he  did  not  think  it  would  be  many 
months  until  he  would  be  lying  there.     He  was  very  thin 
in  flesh  and  pale  at  that  time.     He  had  us  come  into  the 
the  house  again  and  brought  in  a  pitcher  of  cold  water. 
I  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  been  in  Illinois.     He  said  he 
had  not,  but  he  had  become  acquainted  with  a  good  many 
Illinois  men  when  he  was  in  Congress  and  while  he  was 
president,  and  named  over  several  that  I  knew.     He  also 
said  that  he  had  been  acquainted  Avith  a  Methodist  preach- 
er who  had  been  a  delegate  to  the  ISTashville  conference  by 
the  name  of  Peter  Cartwright,  who  was  now  living  in  Illi- 
nois, and  asked  me  if  I  knew  him.     I  told  him  that  I  knew 
him  very  well ;  that  he  had  often  staid  at  my  father's  house 
and  had  preached  in  our  log  cabin  in  the  early  pioneer 
times,  before  there  were  any  church  buildings  put  up.     He 
then  went  on  and  told  the  story  that  when  Cartwright  was 
preaching  one  time  in  Nashville  he  went  to  hear  him,  and 
as  he  was  walking  down  the  aisle  the  preacher  in  the  pulpit 
by  the  side  of  Cartwright  gave  his  coat  a  jerk  and  told  him 
that  Gen.  Jackson  was  coming  in;  at  which  Cartwright 
spoke  out  so  loud  that    all     the    church  could  hear  him: 
"  Who  is  Gen.  Jackson  ?     If  he  don't  get  his  soul  con- 
verted God  will  damn  him  as  quick  as  He  would  a  Guinea 
negro  !  "     I  suppose  the  general  thought  I  had  never  heard 
the  story ;  but  I  heard  it  some  years  before  from  the  Cart- 
wright side,  and  was  pleased  to  hear  it  from  the  other  side. 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  149 

The  general  went  down  to  the  carriage  with  us  to  see  our 
horses,  and  admired  them  very  much,  for  they  were  splen- 
did animals.  He  told  us  to  give  his  kind  regards  to  Col. 
Churchwell  and  wife  when  we  got  to  Knoxville,  and  also 
to  Capt.  Charles  Kirkpatrick  when  we  got  home. 

There  was  one  circumstance  which  I  omitted  to  mention 
relating  to  my  visit  to  the  Hermitage,  which  was  the  splen- 
did arrangement  which  Jackson  had  made  for  the  pleasure 
and  good  of  his    slaves.      Each    family    had  a  one-story 
frame  house  that  was  painted  either  white  or  red,  and  with 
it  about  an  acre  of  ground,  all  fenced  in  with  palings  or 
board  fence    and  whitewashed;  and  around  each  of  these 
houses  were  a  lot  of  fruit  trees  and  shrubbery.     We  were 
told  that  the  general  was  always  good  and  kind  to  his  slaves, 
and  would  never  permit  any  of  them  to  be  sold  to  go  to  the 
southern  states,  and  that  his  slaves  were  strongly  attached 
to  him,  and  that  nothing  would  induce  them  to  leave  their 
old  master.     Notwithstanding  the  terrible  temper  that  the 
general    possessed,     which    made    him    like     a     Kansas 
cyclone    when    he     was     imposed     upon     and     aroused, 
he    still    possessed    a    kind    and    tender    heart,     Many 
people  told  us,  who  had  known  the  general  and  his  good 
wife    during    all    their    thirty-seven    years   of  married 
life,  that  she  was  a  grand  and  noble  Christian  lady,  and  was 
honored  and  loved  by  everybody ;  that  their  affection  for 
each  other  was  of  the  tenderest  kind ;  that  the  general  al- 
ways treated  her  as  if  she  was  his  pride  and  glory,  and  that 
words  could  faintly  describe  her  devotion  to  him ;  that  it 
was  seldom  that  a  husband  and  wife  lived  as  happily  to- 
gether as  they  had  done.     We  were  told  that  when  Mrs. 
Jackson  died  no  such  demonstration  had  ever  been  known 
at  a  funeral  in  that  part  of  the  country  before ;  that  the 
mayor  of  Nashville  issued  a  proclamation  requesting  busi- 
ness men  to  close  their  stores  and  asked  that  the  bells  of  the 
city  be  tolled  from  1  to  2  P.  M.,  during  the  funeral.     Every 
vehicle  in  the  city  was  employed  in  taking  people  to  the 
Hermitage,  where  the  funeral  was  held.     It  was  estimated 
that  10,000  people  attended  the  funeral.     The  death  of 


150  EARLY   PIONEERS   AND   EVENTS. 

Mrs.  Jackson  was  a  terrible  shock  to  the  general,  and  some 
of  his  slaves  went,  almost  frantic  with  grief  and  despair. 
Such  weeping  and  wailing  had  never  been  heard  at  a  fun- 
eral, nor  so  much  affection  shown  by  slaves  on  the  death  of 
a  mistress. 

There  was  a  little  circumstance  that  took  place  in  connec- 
tion with  the  life  of  Gen.  Jackson  that  I  thought  I  would 
mention.  I  heard  my  father-in-law,  Capt,  Charles  Kirk- 
patrick,  speak  of  it,  and  also  his  brothers  and  some  others 
that  we  met  on  our  visit  to  Tennessee.  It  was  on  one  of 
Gen.  Jackson's  expeditions  against  the  Cherokee  Indians, 
and  will  show  that  he  did  possess  a  kind  and  tender  heart. 
The  general  and  his  soldiers  were  pursuing  a  band  of  Indi- 
ans, and  surrounded  them ;  and  as  the  Indians  were  attempt- 
ing to  escape  every  one  was  killed.  In  going  to  their  wigwams 
they  discovered  a  little  boy  papoose,  and  as  the  sol- 
diers were  about  to  dispatch  him,  the  general  commanded 
them  not  to  hurt  the  little  boy.  And  he  took  the  little 
Indian  boy  home  with  him,  and  raised  him,  and  sent  him 
to  school,  and  became  very  much  attached  to  him.  The 
little  Indian  boy  became  very  expert-  in  the  riding  of  race- 
horses. He  could  get  more  speed  out  of  them  than  any 
rider  in  the  country ;  as  the  general  was  keeping  some  race- 
horses at  the  time,  the  boy  made  himself  quite  useful  to  the 
general.  When  the  boy  got  to  be  fifteen  years  old  the  gen- 
eral thought  he  had  better  learn  a  trade;  so  he  took  him 
around  among  the  artisans  and  mechanics  in  Nashville  to 
choose  the  trade  that  he  would  prefer ;  so  he  chose  the  trade 
of  saddlery  and  harness-maker,  but  after  working  at  it  a 
year  he  died.  It  was  thought  that  if  he  had  lived  that  the 
general  would  have  made  provisions  for  him  in  his  will. 

In  giving  this  story  about  Gen.  Jackson  and  the  little 
Indian  boy  I  might  with  some  propriety  make  use  of  a 
habit  peculiar  to  Mr.  Lincoln ;  after  listening  to  a  story 
told  by  a  friend,  he  would  say :  "  Now,  that  puts  me  in 
mind  of  a  little  anecdote,"  and  would  go  on  and  relate  one 
of  his  quaint  and  humorous  stories  to  match  the  one  told 
him.  So  the  circumstance  about  Gen.  Jackson  and  the 
Indian  boy  has  brought  to  my  mind  a  similar  circumstance 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  151 

that  took  place  with  Alexander  Kirkpatrick,  who  was  with 
me  at  the  time  we  visited  Gen.  Jackson.  Whether  the 
story  above  told  about  Jackson  and  the  Indian  boy  had  any 
bearing  on  the  story  that  I  am  about  to  tell  I  cannot  say. 

Alexander  Kirkpatrick,  in  1847,  went  to  study  medicine 
with  Dr.  W.  H.  Nance,  at  Vermont,  Illinois,  and  in  1850 
went  to  California,  and  practiced  medicine  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  also  in  Redwood  City.  He  became  very 
eminent  in  his  profession,  having  at  one  time  the 
largest  practice  in  San  Francisco.  In  1861  there  was  or- 
dered out  in  California  a  regiment  of  soldiers  to  go  into  the 
northern  border  of  the  state  to  fight  the  Indians,  who  had 
been  murdering  a  good  many  families.  Dr.  Kirkpatrick 
got  the  appointment  of  surgeon  to  go  with  the  army.  On 
that  expedition  they  came  upon  the  camp  of  the  hostile 
Indians  and  surrounded  them,  and  as  they  attempted  to 
escape  everyone  was  killed.  The  soldiers  went  inside  of 
the  wigwams  and  there  found  a  little  girl  papoose.  One 
of  the  soldiers  was  about  to  run  his  bayonet  through  her 
when  Dr.  Kirkpatrick  jumped  in  before  him  and  caught 
the  little  girl  up  in  his  arms  and  saved  her  life.  Some  of 
the  soldiers  who  had  lost  relatives  by  the  Indians  were  de- 
termined that  she  should  share  their  fate ;  but  the  doctor 
drew  his  revolver  and  said  that  he  would  protect  the  girl 
at  the  risk  of  his  life.  He  brought  the  little  Indian  pa- 
poose home  and  raised  and  educated  her  the  same  as  he  did 
his  own  children.  The  doctor  told  me  that  the  child  had 
so  many  droll  and  quaint  ways  about  her  and  was  so  differ- 
ent from  other  children  that  he  gave  her  the  name  of 
'  Topsy,"  after  the  girl  spoken  of  by  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  in  "  Uncle  Tonrs  Cabin."  So  she  always  went  by 
the  name  of  Topsy  Kirkpatrick  up  to  the  time  of  her  mar- 
riage with  a  white  man.  I  have  asked  the  doctor  if  he 
thought  that  the  stories  we  heard  in  Tennessee  about  Jack- 
son and  the  Indian  boy  had  anything  to  do  with  his  rescue 
of  the  Indian  girl,  and  he  said  he  thought  that  it  had. 

Dr.  Kirkpatrick  died  in  San  Francisco  in  1894,  leaving 
a  widow  and  two  sons  and  three  daughters  and  Topsy  to 
mourn  his  loss.  He  was  a  kind-hearted,  noble  and  e'ener- 


152  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

ous  man,  and  was  loved  and  honored  by  all  who  knew  him. 
He  left  a  beautiful  home  to  his  family  and  life  insurance 
to  the  amount  of  $20,000. 


CHAPTER  II. 

BRIEF    HISTORY   OF   PRESIDENTIAL     ELECTION     OF     1828. 

SOME     FURTHER     INCIDENTS     CONCERNING     JACKSON. — • 

OUR    DELIGHTFUL    VISIT    IN    THE    SOUTH. HOW    MY  SON 

FRANK*   FINALLY  CAME   TO   PARTAKE   OF  SOUTHERN   HOS- 
PITALITY   AT    THE    HANDS    OF    "  AUNT    MOODY." DEATH 

OF  ANDREW  JACKSON  SHORTLY  AFTER  OUR  RETURN  FROM 
THE  SOUTH. 

I  will  give  a  little  history  of  the  presidential  election  of 
1828,  when  Andrew  Jackson  ran  against  John  Quincy 
Adams.  At  that  time  I  was  about  twelve  years  old,  and 
very  distinctly  remember  the  election  held  in  Lewistown, 
Illinois.  It  was  probably  the  most  exciting  election,  and 
probably  more  bitter  feeling  indulged  in,  than  at  any  elec- 
tion that  has  ever  taken  place  in  this  country.  For  several 
months  before  the  election  almost  every  occupation  was 
dropped  and  the  men  occupied  their  time  electioneering. 
Almost  every  day  long  lines  of  men  could  be  seen  marching 
after  the  fife  and  drum  and  led  by  some  officer  that  had 
served  in  the  war  of  1 81 2.  The  Jackson  party  would  erect 
their  hickory  poles  and  the  Adams  party  their  tall  maple 
poles,  and  stands  would  be  erected  under  their  respective 
poles,  and  the  best  speakers  in  the  country  would  be  brought 
out,  and  each  party  would  have  a  barbecue  of  a  roast  ox  or 
half-a-dozen  sheep  about  every  week.  At  that  time  a  good 
many  who  belonged  to  their  respective  parties  had  been 
soldiers  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  on  their  march  would  wear 

*Now  the  Hon.  Frank  W.  Ross,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah.  He  was 
the  youngest  elective  officer — being  a  Lieutenant  at  the  age  of  fifteen — 
in  the  Federal  Army,  and  served  with  great  bravery  and  distinction  in 
all  the  battles  of  his  regiment  during  the  entire  war,  from  '61  to  '65. — 
C.  K.  O. 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  153 

their  soldier's  uniform  which  they  wore  in  the  army.  My 
father  had  served  as  major  tinder  Gen.  Brown,  of  ISTew 
York.  I  can  remember  very  well  how  he  looked,  dressed 
in  his  military  suit,  with  his  sword  buckled  on  and  hanging 
by  his  side,  wearing  his  soldier  hat  decorated  with  a  large 
cockade  on  one  side  of  his  hat  and  with  two  feather  plumes 
extending  eight  or  ten  inches  above  the  crown  of  his  hat, 
decked  off  with  the  red,  white  and  blue — all  showing  the 
rank  he  held  in  the  army.  He  rode  a  large  white  horse, 
with  a  pistol  holster  swung  across  the  pommel  of  his  saddle, 
in  which  were  two  large  horse-pistols  with  their  flint-locks. 
So  in  marching  in  parade  after  the  fife  and  drum  he  made 
a  pretty  fair  military  appearance. 

The  election  in  Lewistown  at  that  time  was  held  at  the 
log  court  house.  They  had  no  such  thing  in  that  part  of 
the  county  at  that  time  as  saloons ;  but  the  candidates  and 
their  friends  had  a  different  method  of  treating  their 
friends  and  voters  if  they  wished  to  have  something  to 
drink.  A  platform  was  erected  some  thirty  feet  long  in 
front  of  the  court  house,  upon  which  was  placed  barrels, 
kegs,  demijohns  and  jugs,  and  the  names  of  the  candidates 
written  on  their  respective  vessels.  I  remember  thatthe first 
vessel  that  Avas  placed  upon  the  platform  was  a  thirty-gallon 
barrel  of  whisky,  with  the  name  of  "  ANDREW  JACKSON  " 
written  upon  it;  and  in  a  short  time  another  barrel  of  the 
same  size  was  placed  by  its  side,  with  the  name  of  "  JOHN 
QUINCY  ADAMS  "  written  upon  it  in  large  letters.  Then 
came  the  ten  and  five-gallon  kegs ;  then  the  demijohns  and 
jugs,  with  the  names  of  the  candidates  who  had  bought  the 
liquor,  and  everybody  was  welcome  to  all  they  wished  to 
drink.  At  that  time  whisky  was  selling  at  thirty-five  cents 
a  gallon  by  the  barrel,  or  fifty  cents  a  gallon  at  retail ;  and  it 
was  a  marvelous  fact  that  after  the  election  was  over  scarcely 
any  person  had  been  intoxicated  during  the  day.  At  that 
time  ballots  were  not  used  as  at  the  present  time,  but  each 
voter,  after  his  name  was  registered,  would  call  out  the 
names  of  the  candidates,  one  at  a  time,  that  he  wished  to 
vote  for.  There  were  no  national  issues  at  that  time  to 
divide  the  two  parties,  but  each  man  ran  on  his  own  per- 


154  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

sonal  popularity.  The  campaign  was  carried  on  with  a 
great  deal  of  severity  and  bitterness.  Adams  was  accused 
of  corruption  and  extravagance  in  his  former  administra- 
tion, and  of  being  proud  and  selfish,  and  of  being  no  friend 
of  the  poor  and  of  the  laboring  man.  On  the  other  side 
Jackson  was  accused  of  every  crime  and  offense  and 
impropriety  that  ever  a  man  was  known  to  be 
guilty  of.  The  most  was  made  of  his  many 
duels,  and  hand-bills  were  issued  and  sent  broad- 
cast over  the  country  telling  of  his  cruelty  and  bad 
character.  An  account  was  given  of  the  six  men  he  had 
ordered  to  be  shot  in  the  army  for  mutiny  and  desertion, 
and  their  coffins  were  pictiired  out  on  the  handbills.  But 
the  most  cruel  and  malicious  stories  that  were  told  about 
him  were  that  he  and  his  wife  had  lived  together  in  open 
adultery  before  they  were  married.  This  story  aroused 
more  anger  and  bitter  feeling  against  the  Adams  party  than 
any  other  thing  that  had  been  told,  for  it  was  a  falsehood, 
and  his  friends  sternly  resented  that  slander.  Many  a 
hard  fist-fight  took  place  between  the  friends  of  the  two 
parties  in  consequence  of  that  story. 

I  was  told  at  the  time  when  I  traveled  through  Tennes- 
see, in  1843,  and  by  persons  who  had  known  Mrs.  Rachel 
Jackson  from  the  time  that  she  was  fifteen  years  old  up  to 
the  time  of  her  death,  that  there  had  never  lived  in  the  state 
of  Tennessee  a  lady  that  stood  higher  or  was  more  respected 
than  Mrs.  Jackson;  that  she  was  a  pure  and  kind-hearted 
Christian  lady.  Those  infamous  falsehoods  published  about 
Gen.  Jackson  and  his  wife  did  more  to  arouse  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  whole  state  of  Tennessee  against  Adams  and  in 
support  of  Jackson  than  anything  else.  When  the  election 
came  off  there  was  less  than  3,000  votes  cast  for  Mr.  Adams 
in  that  state.  Some  of  the  towns  cast  their  entire  vote  for 
Jackson.  I  was  told  a  story  of  how  a  stranger  had  come 
into  one  of  the  towns  about  election  time  and  put  up  at  the 
hotel  and  took  a  walk  through  the  town.  He  found  a  great 
many  women  on  the  streets,  but  scarcely  a  man  could  be 
seen.  He  came  back  to  the  hotel  and  enquired  of  the  land- 
lord wrhv  it  was  that  so  manv  women  were  seen  on  the 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  155 

streets  and  no  men ;  and  the  landlord  told  him  that  the  men 
had  gone  out  of  town  to  hunt  a  couple  of  criminals,  and 
when  the  stranger  wanted  to  know  what  great  crime  these 
two  men  had  committed  that  the  whole  town  had  gone  in 
pursuit  of  them,  the  landlord  told  him  they  had  voted  for 
Mr.  Adams !  The  people  had  been  anxious  to  carry  the 
place  unanimously  for  Jackson,  as  many  of  the  other  towns 
had  done,  and  the  two  rascals  had  spoiled  the  record,  and 
the  people  were  so  indignant  that  they  were  hunting  them 
so  that  they  could  tar  and  feather  them,  and  the  women 
were  waiting  on  the  streets  anxious  to  see  it  done.  But  the 
men  escaped  to  the  woods  and  could  not  be  found. 

It  was  a  fact  that  Mrs.  Rachel  Jackson  was  married  three 
times — once  to  Lewis  Roberts  and  twice  to  Glen.  Jackson. 
The  peculiar  circumstances  of  her  marriage  to  Gen.  Jack- 
son caused  a  good  deal  of  gossip.  But  when  the  circum- 
stances were  understood  there  was  nothing  wrong  about  it, 
as  I  can  show  as  I  proceed  with  the  narrative. 

I  can  remember  the  men  who  took  an  active  part  in  the 
politics  of  Fulton  county  in  the  election  of  1828,  and  will 
give  the  names  of  a  few  of  the  leaders.  On  the  side  of  Mr. 
Adams  there  were  Stephen  Phelps  and  his  sons  Alexis,  My- 
ron, Sumner  and  William :  also  Win.  Proctor,  Joel  Wright, 
Stephen  Dewey,  Peter  Wood,  Ossian  M.  Ross  and  his 
brothers,  Joseph,  Thomas  and  John;  Hugh  R.  Coulter, 
John  McJSTeil  and  David  W.  Barnes.  On  the  Jackson  side 
were  William  Walters  (  the  hero  of  Rev.  Wm.  J.  Rutledge's 
letters)  and  his  brothers  Daniel,  Thomas  and  John,  and 
an  uncle,  Abner  Walters ;  the  Waughtels,  John  and  Will- 
iam Totten,  and  John  Barker.  The  Adams  men  were  gen- 
erally from  the  East  and  the  Jackson  men  from  the  South- 
ern states.  There  are  only  four  of  the  men  and  boys  I 
knew  at  that  time  who  are  now  living,  viz :  Mason  Eveland 
and  Henry  Warren,  of  Iowa,  Henry  Andrews,  of  Canton, 
and  my  brother,  Leonard  F.  Ross,  of  Lewistown. 

In  continuing  my  narrative  of  the  trip  I  took  through 
Tennessee  at  the  time  I  visited  Gen.  Jackson  I  may  allude 
to  incidents  that  will  not  greatly  interest  the 


156  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

reader.  But  it  will  be  remembered  that  I  am  writing 
these  sketches  chiefly  for  the  benefit  of  my  children,  grand- 
children and  great-grandchildren,  so  the  reader  will  par- 
don these  departures  from  the  main  theme  of  these 
sketches. 

So  I  will  take  up  our  line  of  travel  from  the  time  we  bade 
Gen.  Jackson  goodby  at  the  Hermitage  and  turned  our 
horses'  heads  towards  Knoxville.  The  first  place  we  stop- 
ped at  was  Lebanon.  I  have  read  somewhere  in  divine  his- 
tory something  about  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  and  when  we 
drove  into  town  we  began  to  think  we  had  found  that  place. 
Lebanon  contained  about  1,000  inhabitants,  and  was  built 
in  the  middle  of  a  large  cedar  grove.  Part  of  the  houses 
were  built  of  logs  and  part  were  frame.  The  logs  were 
all  cedar  and  the  frame  houses  were  all  built  of  cedar; 
the  roofs  were  covered  with  cedar  shingles  and  the  fences 
and  gates  were  all  of  cedar.  So  we  concluded  that  Leb- 
anon was  a  very  appropriate  name  for  the  town. 

We  stopped  over  night  at  a  hotel  on  the  top  of  the  Cum- 
berland mountains.  I  went  out  to  the  barn  after  supper 
to  see  how  our  horses  had  been  cared  for.  This  was  my 
custom,  as  we  had  a  long  journey  to  make  and  a  good  deal 
depended  upon  the  condition  of  our  team.  I  asked  the 
negro  hostler  how  much  corn  he  had  fed  the  horses.  He 
said  he  had  given  them  six  ears  apiece.  I  told  him  that 
he  should  have  fed  them  twice  that  amount,  but  he  an- 
swered, "  Massa,  they  are  great  big  ears."  I  asked  how 
large  the  ears  were.  He  said  that  they  were  almost  as  long 
as  his  arm  and  as  big  around  as  his  leg.  Then  I  said  I 
wanted  to  see  some  of  that  corn ;  so  he  took  me  to  the  crib 
and  I  saw  that  the  negro  was  not  far  out  of  the  way,  for 
they  were  the  most  wonderful  ears  of  corn  in  size  that  I 
had  ever  seen.  There  was  about  as  much  feed  in  one  ear  as 
in  two  ears  of  common  corn.  I  asked  the  landlord  how 
it  was  that  such  large  corn  would  grow  on  top  of  the  Cum- 
berland mountains.  He  said  that  there  was  a  dark  sandy 
loam  on  the  mountains — just  the  kind  of  soil  to  produce 
large  corn.  So  I  went  to  the  crib  and  selected  one  of  the 
largest  ears  I  could  find,  and  shelled  it,  and  packed  it  away 


/      ANDREW   JACKSON.  157 

in  my  satchel,  intending  to  bring  it  home  and  try  it  on 
our  Illinois  soil,  as  I  was  at  that  time  carrying  on  a  large 
farm  a  half  mile  east  of  Havana  in  Mason  county,  i 
planted  the  corn  by  itself  so  that  it  would  not  get  mixed 
with  the  other  corn,  and  from  that  planting  I  raised  sev- 
eral bushels.  The  next  year  I  planted  part  of  it  and 
distributed  the  balance  among  some  of  my  neighbor 
farmers,  as  I  wanted  to  have  it  introduced  all  over  the 
county.  They  gave  it  the  name  of  the  "  Tennessee  Mam- 
moth Corn."  I  am  sure  that  after  I  commenced  raising 
that  corn  that  the  yield  to  the  acre  was  at  least  a  third 
more  than  it  had  been  with  common  corn.  Afterwards 
many  Fulton  county  farmers  came  over  to  M^ason  county 
to  get  their  seed  corn. 

We  finally  arrived  at  Col.  Churchwell' s  with  everything 
in  good  trim.  Our  horses  had  stood  the  trip  excellently. 
Col.  Churchwell  and  wife  and  about  half  a  dozen  negro 
servants  were  ready  to  meet  us  as  they  had  heard  that 
we  were  coming.  We  still  had  on  hand  some  of  the  apples 
that  Gen.  Jackson  had  given  us  and  we  distributed  them 
among  the  colonel's  family  and  the  servants,  as  they  all 
wanted  to  taste  the  apples  because  they  had  come  from 
Gen.  Jackson's  orchard.  We  delivered  the  messages  the 
general  had  sent  to  Col.  Churchwell  and  wife,  and  that 
led  them  both  to  tell  us  some  marvelous  stories  about  the 
general,  for  they  had  known  him  most  all  their  lives.  The 
colonel  told  us  of  a  time  that  he  was  attending  court  in  a 
neighboring  town  and  Gen.  Jackson  was  the  presiding 
judge.  A  certain  man  had  committed  a  crime,  and  a 
warrant  had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff,  and 
he  had  summoned  a  half  dozen  men  to  assist  him  in  mak- 
ing the  arrest,  for  the  man  was  a  desperate  character  and 
was  armed  with  several  pistols  and  a  bowie  knife.  The 
sheriff  came  into  court  and  reported  to  the  judge  that  the 
man  could  not  be  taken — that  he  and  his  men  could  not 
afford  to  risk  their  lives  with  such  a  character.  The  judge 
then  said  to  him,  "  Summons  Andrew  Jackson  to  assist 
in  taking  that  man."  The  sheriff  did  so,  and  Jackson  took 
his  hat  and  walked  out  of  the  court  house  and  across  the 


158  EABLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

street  to  where  the  man  was  surrounded  by  many  friends. 
Judge  Jackson  walked  up  to  him,  put  his  hand  on  his 
shoulder,  and  said  to  him,  "  You  are  my  prisoner ;  you 
must  go  with  me  to  the  court  house."  The  man  made  no 
resistance  but  walked  deliberately  to  the  court  house  where 
the  judge  took  the  pistols  and  knife  from  him  and  handed 
them  to  the  sheriff.  The  man  was  asked  afterwards  why 
he  did  not  resist  Gen.  Jackson  as  he  had  done  the  other 
men.  He  said  he  could  see  fight  in  the  eyes  of  the  judge, 
but  could  not  see  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  other  men. 

Col.  Church  well's  wife  could  also  tell  us  of  many  cir- 
cumstances connected  with  the  life  of  the  general.  She 
told  us  about  what  a  time  the  minister  had  had  with  him 
to  get  him  to  agree  to  forgive  his  enemies  when  he  was 
about  to  join  the  church.  He  told  the  minister  that  he 
was  willing  to  forgive  all  his  political  enemies,  but  his 
enemies  that  had  been  guilty  of  defaming  his  private 
character  and  his  wife,  and  of  lying  about  his  mother, 
he  did  not  4;hink  he  could  forgive.  But  the  minister 
told  him  that  if  he  expected  to  have  his  sins  forgiven  he 
would  have  to  forgive  his  enemies,  and  pointed  him  to 
many  passages  of  scripture  that  treated  on  that  subject. 
So  the  general  finally  agreed  to  forgive  his  enemies  and 
was  received  as  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 
It  took  place  at  the  little  brick  church  near  the  Hermitage 
that  he  had  built  for  his  wife  soon  after  they  were  married. 
I  was  told  that  Jackson  and  his  wife  were  regular  attend- 
ants at  church  while  she  was  living,  and  that  he  was  al- 
ways a  friend  to  all  religious  institutions,  and  that  all 
his  ancestors,  including  his  mother,  were  Presbyterians. 
I  will  quote  a  few  sentences  from  the  biography  of  Peter 
Cartwright  to  show  what  the  old  pioneer  Methodist 
preacher  had  to  say  about  him,  as  follows : 

"  Gen.  Jackson  was  certainly  a  very  extraordinary  man. 
He  was  no  doubt  in  his  prime  of  life  a  very  wicked  man, 
but  he  always  showed  a  great  respect  for  the  Christian 
religion  and  the  feelings  of  religious  people,  especially 
ministers  of  the  gospel.  I  will  here  relate  a  little  inci- 
dent that  shows  his  respect  for  religion.  I  had  preached 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  159 

one  Sabbath  near  the  Hermitage,  and  in  company  with 
several  gentlemen  and  ladies  went  by  special  invitation 
to  dine  with  the  general.  Among  the  company  there  was 
a  young  sprig  of  a  lawyer  from  Nashville,  of  very  ordi- 
nary intellect,  and  was  trying  very  hard  to  make  an  infidel 
of  himself.  As  I  was  the  only  preacher  present  the  young 
lawyer  kept  pushing  his  conversation  on  me  in  order  to 
get  "into  an  argument.  I  tried  to  evade  an  argument,  in 
the  first  place  considering  it  a  breach  of  good  manners 
to  interrupt  the  social  conversation  of  the  company,  and, 
in  the  second  place,  I  plainly  saw  that  his  head  was  much 
softer  than  his  heart,  and  that  there  were  no  laurels  to 
be  won  by  vanquishing  or  demolishing  such  a  combatant ; 
I  persisted  in  evading  an  argument.  This  seemed  to  in- 
spire the  young  man  with  more  confidence  in  himself,  for 
my  evasiveness  he  construed  into  fear.  I  saw  Gen.  Jack- 
son's eyes  strike  fire  as  he  sat  by  and  heard  the  thrusts 
made  at  the  Christian  religion.  At  length  the  young 
lawyer  asked  me  this  question  : 

"  '  Mr.  Cartwright,  do  you  believe  there  is  any  such 
place  as  hell  ?' 

"<Yes,  sir;  I  do.' 

"  To  which  he  responded : 

"  '  Well,  I  thank  God  I  have  too  much  good  sense  to 
believe  any  such  thing.' 

"  I  was  pondering  in  my  mind  whether  I  would  answer 
him  or  not  when  Gen.  Jackson  for  the  first  time  broke 
into  the  conversation,  and,  directing  his  words  to  the 
young  man,  said  with  great  earnestness: 

"  '  Well,  sir,  I  thank  God  that  there  is  such  a  place  of 
torment  as  hell.' 

"  This  sudden  answer,  made  with  great  earnestness, 
seemed  to  astonish  the  youngster,  and  he  exclaimed: 

"  '  Why,  Gen.  Jackson,  what  do  you  want  of  such  a 
place  of  torment  as  hell  ?' 

"  To  which  the  general  replied,  as  quick  as  lightning : 
'  To  put  such  a  rascal  as  you  in  that  opposes  and 
villifies  the  Christian  religion !'  ' 

After  a  cordial  welcome  to  myself  and  my  two  young 


160  EARLY   PIONEEBS   AND    EVENTS. 

comrades  we  had  a  delightful  time  going  with  Col.  Church- 
well  over  his  splendid  farm  of  500  acres,  located  two  miles 
north  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee.  His  negroes  cultivated 
about  300  acres,  and  the  balance  was  in  timber  and  seeded 
down  to  blue  grass.  He  was  engaged  in  raising  fine- 
blooded  stock.  He  had  a  fine  dwelling  house  and  ten  or 
twelve  frame  houses  on  his  place  that  his  slave  families 
occupied.  He  had  fine  barns  and  stables,  and  all  his 
buildings  and  improvements  were  very  good.  He  had 
about  forty  slaves  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  ages.  He  was 
good  and  humane  to  his  slaves  and  would  never  permit 
any  of  them  to  be  sold  to1  go  to  the  southern  plantations. 
His  nephew  was  his  overseer,  and  he.  told  me  that  he  very 
seldom  had  to  punish  a  slave.  Col.  Churchwell  was  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  church,  and  his  wife  was  a  Pres- 
byterian. It  was  his  habit  to  hold  family  prayers  morn- 
ing and  evening  and  he  asked  a  blessing  at  his  table.  He 
and'  his  wife  were  regular  attendants  at  church.  Some- 
times both  would  go  to  the  Methodist  church  and  then 
to  the  Presbyterian  church.  Many  of  the  slaves  were 
church  members,  some  belonging  to  one  church  and  some 
to  the  other.  Both  Col.  Churchwell  and  his  wife  believed 
that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution,  and  that  there  was 
no  harm  in  owning  slaves,  and  the  only  harm  there  was 
about  it  was  the  abuse  sometimes  shown  them  by  their 
masters.  There  was  a  very  radical  difference  of  opinion 
among  my  wife's  relatives  in  regard  to  slavery,  for  on 
her  father's  side  I  have  never  known  any  of  them  to  buy 
or  sell  a  slave,  although  many  of  them  were  able  to  do  so; 
but  on  her  mother's  ( Churchwell' s)  side  I  never  knew 
any  of  them  who  would  not  buy  slaves  if  they  had  the 
money  to  do  so. 

The  colonel  and  his  good  wife,  "  Aunt  Moody,"  as  we 
called  her,  did  everything  in  their  power  to  make  us  have 
a  good  and  happy  time.  Their  southern  hospitality  was 
manifested  in  many  ways. 

As  stated  in  my  first  letter,  the  colonel  and  his  wife 
were  in  the-habit  of  visiting  relatives  in  Illinois  every  two 
or  three  years;  and  I  think  the  last  time  they  came  was 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  161 

in  1856,  when  they  visited  my  family  at  Vermont,  Fulton 
county.  Mrs.  Chuchwell  was  one  of  the  kindest,  best 
women  I  have  ever  known.  She  became  very  much  at- 
tached to  our  oldest  boy,  Frank,  who  was  then  about  half 
grown.  She  wanted  Frank  to  promise  her  that  when  he 
was  grown  that  he  would  go  to  Tennessee  and  visit  his 
old  Aunt  Moody.  She  promised  him  that  she  would  have 
the  negroes  dance  for  him,  as  she  did  when  his  father 
and  uncles  visited  her,  and  would  make  him  have  a  grand 
and  good  time. 

Well,  as  time  rolled  away  the  boy  did  go  and  visit  his 
old  aunt,  but  he  did  not  go  in  just  the  way  she  expected 
him  to  come,  and  he  took  more  company  with  him  than 
his  old  aunt  was  in  the  habit  of  entertaining,  and  he  did 
not  wait  until  he  was  grown,  as  his  aunt  had  told  him 
to  do. 

When  the  civil  war  came  on  and  an  appeal  was  made  for 
volunteers,  the  boy  caught  the  war  fever  and  had  it  very 
badly.  Because  he  was  so  young  we  did  all  in  our  power 
to  persuade  him  from  becoming  a  soldier ;  but  at  last  his 
parents  gave  their  consent  and  he  was  enrolled  as  a  member 
of  the  old  84th  regiment  Illinois  volunteers,  which  was 
made  up  from  men  from  Fulton  and  McDonough  coun- 
ties under  Col.  Waters  of  Macomb.  The  regiment  was  at 
once  ordered  to  go  to  east  Tennessee,  and  singular  as  it  may 
seem  took  up  their  headquarters  right  on  Col.  Churchwell's 
fine  farm.  They  certainly  could  not  have  found  a  better  lo- 
cality for  a  military  post  if  they  had  searched  the  state 
over,  for  the  place  was  well  watered  with  springs  and 
creeks,  with  plenty  of  timber,  and  with  an  abundance  of 
houses,  barns  and  stables,  and  everything  that  a  regiment 
of  men  could  desire  for  their  comfort  and  convenience. 
Col.  Waters  took,  possession  of  their  fine  old  mansion  for 
headquarters  of  himself  and  staff,  though  he  was  generous 
enough  to  let  Mrs.  Clmrchwell  retain  a  few  of  the  rooms. 
Col.  Churchwell  had  died  about  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  and  his  only  son,  William,  was  an  officer  in  the  con- 
federate army,  and  was  killed  before  the  war  closed.  Mrs. 
C.,  with  her  nephew  as  overseer,  and  her  negroes,  were  run- 


162  EARLY  PIONEEKS  AND  EVENTS. 

ning  her  farm  when  the  regiment  came  down  upon  them 
like  a  cloud  of  3£ansas  locusts  would  upon  a  fertile  field, 
and  with  almost  as  great  destruction.  It  was  a  terrible  or- 
deal for  the  old  lady  to  see  her  beautiful  place  desecrated, 
her  fine  house  occupied  by  soldiers  and  the  soldiers' 
tents  spread  over  the  fields,  and  her  fine  carriage 
horses  taken  for  cavalry  horses,  and  her  large  Nor- 
man horses,  which  her  negroes  needed  so  badly  to  work  the 
farm,  taken  to  haul  some  old  cannon  around  over  the  coun- 
try; and  when  she  would  remonstrate  against  such  treat- 
ment the  officers  would  tell  her  that  it  was  a  military  neces- 
sity. And  when  her  corn  and  hay  would  be  taken  from 
her  barns,  and  her  rails  burned,  and  her  dairy  and  chicken 
house  looted,  and  her  cows  milked  by  the  "  Yankee  blue- 
coats,"  then  she  would  lay  her  grievances  before  Col. 
Waters,  and  he  would  try  to  appease  her  wrath  and  indig- 
nation by  telling  her  that  it  was  a  military  necessity. 
These  indignities  caused  her  at  last  to  express  her  mind 
quite  freely  as  to  what  she  thought  of  them ;  so  they  gave 
her  the  name  of  "  old  rebel,"  for  she  was  very  bitter  against 
the  whole  union  army. 

One  day  the  old  lady  asked  Col.  Waters  where  those  fel- 
lows came  from  that  had  settled  down  upon  her  premises, 
and  he  told  her  they  were  from  Illinois.  She  then  told 
him  she  had  relatives  in  Illinois  by  the  names  of  Kirkpat- 
rick  and  Ross,  and  wanted  to  know  of  the  colonel  if  he  had 
any  soldiers  by  either  name.  The  colonel  told  her  there 
was  a  young  lad  in  the  regiment  whose  name  was  Frank 
Ross.  She  said  she  would  like  to  see  him;  so  the  colonel 
sent  one  of  his  officers  to  hunt  Frank  up,  and  after  a  con- 
siderable search  he  was  found  in  one  of  the  camps  frying 
chickens.  He  was  told  there  was  an  old  rebel  woman  up 
at  headquarters  who  wanted  to  see  him.  Frank  knew  noth- 
ing about  whose  farm  it  was  they  were  camping  on ;  so  he 
went  to  the  house  without  any  idea  as  to  whom  he  would 
meet.  But  when  he  came  face  to  face  with  the  "  old  rebel 
woman,"  lo  and  behold,  it  was  his  old  Aunt  Moody  Church- 
well — the  good  old  aunt  that  had  invited  him  to  come  and 
visit  her,  and  had  promised  that  when  he  came  she  would 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  163 

have  the  negroes  dance  and  sing  for  him!  But  here  he 
was,  with  a  lot  of  companions,  desecrating  and  wrecking 
her  fine  farm  and  frying  her  chickens ! 

But  when  she  saw  that  he  was  really  Frank,  the  kind 
and  noble  impulses  of  her  heart  came  to  her  as  in  times 
past,  and  she  showed  him  the  utmost  kindness,  and  told 
Col.  Waters  that  if  the  boy  should  be  wounded  or  get  sick 
to  send  him  to  her  house  and  that  she  would  see  that  he  was 
well  taken  care  of. 

Now  1  must  go  back  and  give  a  sketch  of  our  visit  at  Col. 
Churchwell's,  where  we  remained  two  weeks,  visiting  him 
and  my  wife's  relatives  in  Tennessee.  Before  starting 
home  the  colonel  wanted  us  to  have  a  good  time,  so  he  gave 
us  two  grand  diversions.  The  first  was  a  negro  corn-shuck- 
ing and  the  other  was  a  negro  dance,  or,  as  they  called  it, 
a  "negro  shindig."  If  any  Northern  man  ever  traveled  in 
the  South  in  slave  days  and  missed  a  negro  corn-shucking 
or  a  negro  dance,  he  missed  a  good  deal.  The  pile  of  corn 
was  forty  feet  long,  eight  feet  wide  and  four  or  five  feet 
high.  They  divided  it  off  into  two  piles  and  drove  a 
stake  in  the  middle,  then  chose  sides  and  went 
at  it  with  a  rush.  The  side  that  came  out  last 
in  shucking  its  pile  had  to  furnish  the  egg-nogg 
to  treat  the  whole  company.  As  soon  as  the  negroes 
commenced  shucking  the  corn,  working  like  beavers,  they 
also  commenced  singing  their  plantation  songs,  and  they 
sang  with  so  much  force  and  power  that  they  could  be  heard 
about  a  mile.  While  the  negroes  were  thus  engaged  their 
wives  were  preparing  for  them  a  bountiful  supper.  I  do 
not  think  I  ever  saw  a  happier  set  of  people  than  they  were. 
The  colonel  had  on  his  negro  quarters  one  house  with  a 
large  room  in  it  that  he  said  his  negroes  used  to  hold  meet/- 
ings in  on  Sundays,  when  some  white  or  black  preacher 
would  come  out  from  Knoxville  and  preach  for  them,  and 
they  used  the  same  room  to  hold  their  dances  in.  His  rule 
was  to  let  them  have  a  dance  the  last  Saturday  night  in  each 
month.  He  said  it  encouraged  them  and  made  them  better 
servants.  So  one  evening  before  we  came  away  he  gath- 


164  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

ered  the  negroes  together,  men,  women,  boys  and  girls,  to 
show  us  how  they  could  dance.  He  had  one  old  negro, 
Ned,  who  played  the  violin  for  them.  He  told  us  that  he 
was  seventy  years  old,  and  had  played  on  "de  fiddle"  since 
he  was  a  boy,  and  seemed  to  be  very  proud  of  his  skill. 
The  music  and  the  dancing  were  both  grand,  and  we  looked 
on  with  a  great  deal  of  delight. 

But  the  time  had  come  for  our  departure  homeward.  I 
had  sold  the  horses  and  carriage  that  we  had  taken  with  us, 
and  we  rode  home  some  of  the  horses  I  bought  of  Ool. 
Churchwell.  We  bought  fourteen  head — horses,  mares, 
jacks  and  jennies.  We  traveled  the  first  day  thirty  miles 
and  stopped  over  night  at  Arthur  Kirkpatrick's,  a  brother 
of  my  wife's  father.  He  was  keeping  a  country  store  and 
running  a  farm.  He  had  some  negroes  hired  to  work  on 
the  farm,  but  told  us  that  he  would  never  buy  or  sell  a  slave. 
He  had  known  Gen.  Jackson  for  several  years  and  told  us 
many  stories  about  him ;  in  fact,  we  could  hardly  meet  an 
old  settler  in  that  state  but  who  could  tell  us  more  or  less 
about  him. 

We  came  home  a  different  route  from  the  one  we  went 
out  on.  It  was  nearer,  but  not  so  good  a  road.  We  came 
back  through  Kentucky  and  through  the  grand  prairies  of 
eastern  Illinois.  Sometimes  we  found  it  twenty  miles  be- 
tween the  houses.  We  struck  the  road  we  had  gone  out  on  at 
Springfield. 

On  our  way  home  we  passed  Major  Newton  Walker  and 
Hugh  Lamaster,  who  had  been  to  Kentucky  and  bought  a 
herd  of  Durham  cattle.  I  think  they  were  the  first  blooded 
cattle  ever  brought  into  Fulton  county.  When  we  reached 
home  I  found  my  wife  and  little  boy,  Ossian,  anxiously 
awaiting  our  arrival,  for  we  had  been  gone  six  weeks,  and 
it  was  a  time  of  joy  and  rejoicing  when  we  got  home,  for 
I  had  never  been  away  from  home  before  to  exceed  a  day 
since  he  was  born.  And  when  I  opened  my  satchel  and 
took  out  the  six  large  apples  that  Gen.  Jackson  had  given 
me  to  take  home  to  my  wife  and  boy  (as  mentioned  in  my 
second  letter),  our  little  boy  hardly  knew  whether  they 
were  to  eat  or  play  with,  for  he  had  never  seen  an  apple  be- 


ANDBEW  JACKSON.  165 

fore.  At  that  time  there  was  not  a  bearing  orchard  in 
Mason  county.  A  few  orchards  had  been  planted  out,  but 
none  of  them  had  commenced  to  bear.  But  he  soon  found 
that  they  were  good  to  eat,  and  his  little  teeth  went  for  them 
with  a  vengeance.  I  told  him  that  the  apples  came  from 
Gen.  Jackson's  orchard — that  Jackson  had  sent  them  to 
Ossian  and  his  mother.  He  had  just  commenced  to  learn 
to  talk,  and  he  learned  to  prounoune  the  words  "Jackson" 
and  "apples  "  a  little  before  any  other  words,  and  after  the 
apples  were  gone  he  would  often  climb  up  in  my  lap  and 
put  his  little  arms  around  my  neck  and  say,  "Papa,  go  to 
Jackson  and  get  more  apples  for  Ossian."  But  the  apples 
that  came  from  the  orchard  of  the  old  hero  were  the  first 
and  the  last  that  he  ever  had  the  opportunity  to  put  his  little 
teeth  into,  for  in  six  weeks  after  my  return  he  was  taken 
from  us  by  that  cruel  disease,  the  croup.  He  was  eighteen 
months  old  when  he  died.  He  was  unusually  smart  and 
bright  for  one  of  his  age,  and  his  death  was  a  terrible  be- 
reavement to  us,  for  our  very  hearts  and  lives  were  wrapped 
up  in  our  little  boy.  He  was  our  first  child,  and  no  tongue 
could  express  the  grief  and  sorrow  that  filled  our  hearts 
when  he  was  taken  away.  Another  incident  about  the 
child :  On  the  first  visit  of  Col.  Churchwell  and  wife  to  us 
in  1842,  the  little  fellow  was  about  six  months  old.  Mrs. 
Churchwell  had  a  bright,  new  half-dollar  bearing  the  date 
"1842."  So  she  got  a  hole  drilled  through  the  rim  of  it, 
put  a  ribbon  through  it,  and  hung  it  around  little  Ossian's 
neck,  saying  it  would  be  a  keepsake  from  her  and  would 
show  the  year  the  boy  was  born  and  the  year  of  their  first 
visit  to  us.  After  the  lad  died  his  mother  laid  the  coin 
away,  intending  to  keep  it  as  a  sacred  memorial  as  long  as 
she  lived,  and  did  keep  it  for  almost  forty  years.  But  it 
was  stolen  by  a  servant.  His  mother  would  have  rather 
lost  a  $20  gold  piece  than  that  sacred  coin. 

After  we  got  back  from  our  trip  I  called  on  Father  Kirk- 
patrick  to  give  him  a  few  tales  of  our  trip  and  to  tell  him 
about  his  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the  great  number  of 
nephews  and  nieces  we  had  met  out  there,  and  how  anxious 
they  were  for  him  and  his  wife  to  go  out  and  make  them  a 


166  EARLY   PIONEERS   AND   EVENTS. 

visit,  and  of  the  kind  invitation  Gen.  Jackson  had  sent,  that 
if  he  came  to  Tennessee  again  to  come  and  see  him.  This 
produced  a  desire  in  the  old  gentleman's  heart  that  he 
would  like  to  go  back  to  his  native  state  where  he  had  spent 
his  boyhood.  So  a  year  after  he  secured  a  fine,  large  horse 
and  carriage  and  he  and  his  wife  made  the  trip  from  Can- 
ton, 111.,  to  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  and  back  without  any  mishap 
or  accident.  He  went  by  the  Hermitage,  but  learned  be- 
fore he  got  there  that  the  old  General  had  died  a  few  weeks 
before.  But  he  stopped  at  the  grave  with  reverence  for  the 
old  hero  with  whom  he  had  fought  many  battles  against 
the  Indians ;  and  we  may  be  sure  that  he  paid  to  his  friend 
and  leader  the  tribute  of  his  tears. 


CHAPTER   III. 

CIRCUMSTANCES  SURROUNDING  ANDREW  JACKSON'S  MAR- 
RIAGE. -  MY  VISIT  TO  THE  NOTED  BATTLE  GROUNDS  AT 
NEW  ORLEANS.  -  STORY  OF  JACKSON'S  GREAT  VICTORY.  - 
SOME  HIGH  OFFICES  TO  WHICH  HE  HAD  BEEN  APPOINTED. 
A  BRIEF  REVIEW  OF  HIS  CHILDHOOD. 


comes  the  story  of  how  it  happened  that  Jackson 
was  married  twice  to  the  same  lady.  I  will  give  the  cir- 
cumstances surrounding  this  remarkable  case,  as  I  learned 
them  from  the  people  of  Tennessee  when  I  was  there  in 
1843,.  and  from  his  biographies.  It  was  the  one  event  in 
his  long,  noble  and  useful  life  that  gave  his  enemies  a 
chance  to  blast  his  good  name  and  that  of  his  pure  and  love- 
ly wife  These  slanders  stirred  the  tiger  in  him  until  noth- 
ing but  human  blood  would  quench  his  hate.  They  were 
the  cause  of  most  of  his  many  encounters  and  duels.  It  is 
said  that  for  thirty  years  he  kept  his  pistols  ready  for  in- 
stant use  in  defense  of  his  wife's  good  name. 

Jackson's  wife  was  a  daughter  of  John  Donelson,  an 
old  Virginia  farmer,  who  settled  five  miles  from  Nashville 
in  1780.  eight  years  before  Jackson  came  to  Tennessee. 
s 


ANBKEW   JACKSON.  167 

Donelson  had  a  family  of  sons  and  daughters,  and  was  a 
man  of  considerable  wealth.  He  was  engaged  in  raising 
stock  and  horses.  But  one  year  there  came  a  great  drouth 
that  destroyed  crops  and  pastures,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  move  his  family  and  stock  to  Mercer  county,  Ky.,  200 
miles  away,  where  the  drouth  had  been  less  severe.  While 
here  his  daughter  Rachel  (afterwards  Mrs.  Jackson)  was 
married  to  Lewis  Robards,  who  lived  with  his  widowed 
mother,  who  at  that  time  was  keeping  a  boarding  house; 
and  he  took  his  bride  to  live  with  his  mother.  Boarding 
with  her  were  some  young  men,  and  it  was  not  long  until 
Robards,  being  of  a  jealous  disposition,  and  his  bride  being 
very  handsome,  sprightly  and  jovial,  became  very  jealous 
of  one  of  the  young  men  and  behaved  in  such  an  ungentle- 
manly  manner  that  her  indignation  was  aroused  and  she 
wrote  to  one  of  her  brothers  at  Nashville  to  come  and  take 
her  home — her  father  and  family  having  returned  there. 
And  so  she  left  Robards ;  but  she  had  only  been  at  home 
a  few  weeks  when  her  father,  while  out  surveying, 
was  killed  by  the  Indians.  But  Mrs.  Robards  continued 
to  live  with  her  mother,  and  in  about  six  months  her  hus- 
band relented  and  made  many  apologies  for  his  conduct 
and  begged  her  to  come  back  and  live  with  him.  This 
she  consented  to  do  on  his  promise  that  he  would  there- 
after treat  her  with  the  confidence  and  respect  due  a  wife ; 
but  she  refused  to  return  to  Kentucky,  as  it  was  sparsely 
settled  and  the  Indians  were  very  troublesome.  So  in- 
stead of  her  going  to  Kentucky  he  came  to  live  with  her  at 
Nashville  at  her  mother's  house.  While  they  were  all 
living  together  Gen.  Jackson  made  his  first  appearance 
at  Nashville.  Mrs.  Donelson  occupied  one  of  the  largest 
houses  in  the  place  and  was  keeping  boarders,  and  it  so 
happened  that  Jackson  became  one  of  her  boarders  with 
another  young  lawyer  from  South  Carolina.  And  here 
Gen.  Jackson  first  met  the  charming  bride  who  was  to 
figure  so  prominently  thereafter  in  his  own  life.  They 
could  not  very  well  help  getting  acquainted  while  they 
were  living  in  the  same  house  and  eating  at  the  same  table. 
It  was  not  long  until  the  green-eyed  monster  again  seized 


168  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

Robards,  and  this  time  it  was  Gen.  J  ackson  who  he  thought 
was  paying  too  much  attention  to  his  wife.  The  result 
was  very  scandalous  actions  on  the  part  of  Robards.  It 
grieved  the  wife  terribly,  and  Gen.  Jackson  seriously  re- 
monstrated with  Robards  against  his  cruel  and  unjust 
conduct  towards  his  wife  and  himself,  and  Jackson  at 
once  sought  another  boarding  house.  In  great  indignation 
the  wife  again  left  her  husband  and  took  up  her  abode 
with  a  married  sister.  Robards  soon  returned  to  his 
former  home  in  Kentucky,  and  commenced  proceedings 
to  secure  a  divorce.  The  procedure  in  such  cases  at  that 
time  will  interest  the  reader.  I  copy  from  one  of  Jack- 
son's biographies  some  of  the  details : 

"  In  Virginia  in  the  olden  time  if  a  man  convinced  of 
his  wife's  infidelity  desired  to  be  divorced  from  her  he 
was  required  to  procure  from  the  legislature  an  act  author- 
izing an  investigation  of  the  charge  before  a  jury  and  pro- 
nouncing the  marriage  bond  dissolved,  providing  the  jury- 
shall  find  her  guilty.  In  the  winter  of  1790-91  Lewis 
Robards  of  Kentucky,  originally  part  of  Virginia,  the 
husband  of  Rachel  Donelson,  appeared  before  the  leisla- 
ture  of  Virginia  with  a  declaration  to  the  effect  that  his 
wife  Rachel  had  deserted  him  and  had  lived  and  was  living 
in  adultery  with  another  man,  to  wit,  Andrew  Jackson,  an 
attorney  at  law,  whereupon  the  legislature  of  Virginia 
passed  an  act  entitled  '  An  act  concerning  the  marriage  of 
Lewis  Robards,'  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : 

"  '  Be  it  enacted  by  the  general  assembly  that  it  shall 
and  may  be  lawful  for  Lewis  Robards  to  sue  out  of  the 
office  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  district  of  Kentucky  a 
writ  against  Rachel  Robards,  which  writ  shall  be  framed 
by  the  clerk  and  express  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  shall 
be  published  for  eight  weeks  in  the  Kentucky  Gazette, 
whereupon  the  plaintiff  may  file  his  declaration  in  the 
same  cause,  and  the  defendant  may  appear  and  plead  to 
issue,  in  which  case,  or  if  she  does  not  appear  within  two 
months  after  such  publication,  it  shall  be  set  for  trial  by 
the  clerk  on  some  day  in  the  succeeding  court,  but  may 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  169 

for  good  cause  shown  to  the  court  be  continued  until  the 
succeeding  term.' ' 

Now  after  the  legislature  had  passed  this  act  Lewis  Ro- 
bards  did  go  on  with  a  suit  against  his  wife  for  a  divorce, 
and  the  charge  alleged  was  of  desertion  and  the  living  in 
adultery  with  Andrew  Jackson.  The  legal  notice  was 
given  in  the  Gazette,  and  Mrs.  Robards  had  read  it,  but 
she  did  not  attend  court  or  make  any  defense  as  she  wished 
him  to  get  the  divorce  so  she  could  get  rid  of  him.  She 
could  have  proven  by  scores  of  witnesses  in  Nashville  that 
his  allegations  were  false,  for  all  this  time  she  was  living 
with  her  mother  or  sister,  while  Jackson  was  living  at  a 
hotel. 

Some  months  after  this  a  company  of  Nashville  people 
was  made  up  to  take  a  trip  down  the  river  to  Natchez. 
Among  these  were  Col.  Stark  and  wife,  friends  of  the 
Donelson  family,  and  Mrs.  Robards  was  asked  to  go  with 
them,  and  she  did  so  to  visit  some  friends  she  had  in 
Natchez.  While  there  she  heard  the  news  that  Robards 
had  secured  a  divorce  from  her.  As  soon  as  Jackson 
heard  the  news  he  took  a  steamboat  for  Natchez  and  mar- 
ried Mrs.  Robards  and  took  her  back  to  Nashville.  The 
marriage  was  on  a  license  and  in  due  form  of  law.  After 
they  had  lived  happily  together  for  six  months  the  aston- 
ishing word  came  to  them  that  the  divorce  had  just  been 
granted,  that  the  first  report  was  a  mistake.  It  was  really 
about  two  years  after  Robards  had  commenced  divorce 
proceedings  before  the  divorce  was  granted.  At  that  time 
there  were  no  mails  being  carried  between  Hardin  county, 
Kentucky,  and  Nashville,  and  it  was  difficult  to  get  news 
from  one  section  to  another.  Gen.  and  Mrs.  Jackson  were 
greatly  shocked  when  this  news  came  to  them.  There 
was  but  one  thing  to  do.  All  their  friends  agreed  to  that. 
They  must  procure  another  license  and  be  married  the 
second  time  according  to  the  due  forms  of  law.  This  was 
done  at  once.  It  did  not  affect  their  high  social  position 
in  Nashville,  for  all  the  people  knew  they  had  done  no 
intentional  wrong.  Thereafter  inside  of  six  years  Gen. 
Jackson  was  elected  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Davidson 


170  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

University  with  the  most  eminent  ministers  and  other  citi- 
zens as  his  colleagues;  then  as  a  member  of  Tennessee's 
first  constitutional  convention ;  then  to  the  lower  house  of 
Congress;  then  to  the  United  States  Senate,  and  finally 
to  be  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee.  All 
these  high  honors  and  responsibilities  came  to  him  within 
six  years  after  his  marriage  to  Mrs.  Robards,  and  without 
protest  or  criticism  as  to  that  act. 

It  was  not  until  the  opening  of  the  vile  presidential 
campaign  of  1828  that  politicians  and  the  newspapers 
opened  the  vials  of  scandal  and  detraction  upon  the  old 
hero  and  his  pure  and  noble  wife.  The  old  records  were 
searched  and  the  worst  possible  construction  put  upon 
every  act.  As  I  have  said  in  a  former  article,  there  were 
no  great  national  issues  in  that  campaign,  but  the  men 
were  voted  for  on  their  records,  and  this  vile  abuse  was 
resorted  to  defeat  the  old  hero  of  many  wars. 

I  will  now  tell  of  my  visit  to  the  battle-ground  of  New 
Orleans,  where  Gen.  Jackson  defeated  Major  Edward 
Packingham  on  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  and  will  de- 
scribe its  appearance,  and  give  some  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  battle  as  I  gleaned  them  from  citizens  who  lived  there 
in  New  Orleans  at  the  time. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1856  that,  with  my  wife  and  little 
boy  Joseph,  I  took  a  trip  by  river  to  New  Orleans,  and 
thence  by  the  gulf  to  Texas.  We  took  a  steamer  at  Brown- 
ing on  the  Illinois  river  to  St.  Louis,  and  there  took  an- 
other steamer  for  the  long  river  trip  down  the  Mississippi 
to  New  Orleans.  We  stopped  there  a  week,  and  put  up  at 
the  Planters'  Hotel.  I  found  that  the  landlord  was  an  old 
hotel  keeper  and  well  acquainted  with  the  older  residents  of 
that  country,  and  he  found  for  me  a  man  that  was  in  the 
city  when  the  battle  was  fought,  to  go  with  me  and  show  me 
the  battlefield,  and  explain  the  circumstances  connected 
with  it.  The  battlefield  was  then  about  five  miles  from  the 
city,  and  hacks  were  running  there  every  day  at  fifty  cents 
for  the  trip.  So  under  this  guide  we  had  a  good  view  of 
the  whole  situation.  A  ditch  had  been  dug  and  breast- 


ANDKEW  JACKSON.  171 

works  thrown  tip  from  the  Mississippi  river  a  distance  of 
a  mile  to  a  low,  swampy  land.  At  the  time  of  the  battle 
the  ditch  contained  five  feet  of  water,  and  the  breastworks 
were  from  five  to  six  feet  high,  made  from  the  dirt  that 
was  taken  out  of  the  ditch.  There  was  also  many  cotton 
bales  used  in  building  the  fortification.  When  I  was 
there  the  greater  part  of  the  breastworks  had  been  leveled 
off  and  the  ditch  filled  up ;  but  still  there  was  enough  left 
to  show  its  location  and  how  it  had  been  constructed.  It 
appeared  that  Gen.  Jackson  had  used  a  great  deal  of  skill 
and  ingenuity  in  constructing  the  fortifications  to  shield 
his  men  from  the  fire  of  their  enemies.  On  the  back  side 
of  the  breastworks  a  platform  of  earth  had  been  con- 
structed a  foot  high  and  five  feet  wide,  upon  which  the  men 
could  step  to  fire  over  the  works  and  then  step  down  out 
of  range  of  the  enemies'  bullets  to  reload  their  guns. 

From  the  best  information  I  could  get  from  old  citizens 
and  other  sources,  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  this  battle  the 
British  forces  numbered  about  7,000  men,  while  Jackson's 
army  numbered  5,000.  Gen.  Jackson  had  declared  martial 
law  at  ~New  Orleans  because  of  the  many  enemies  in  the 
city,  and  he  had  conscripted  some  thousand  Frenchmen, 
Creoles,  etc.,  that  knew  very  little  about  military  matters. 

One  singular  thing  happened  at  this  battle  that  is  worth 
recording.  Packingham  had  caused  to  be  constructed  a 
supply  of  ladders  and  plank  platforms  to  be  used  in  cross- 
ing the  ditch  and  climbing  the  earthworks  to  Jackson's 
stronghold ;  but  when  the  battle  commenced  and  Packing- 
ham  made  his  assault  and  came  to  the  ditch,  they  had  for- 
gotten to  bring  along  those  platforms  and  ladders.  So  the 
only  way  they  had  of  crossing  the  ditch  was  for  one  man  to 
take  another  on  his  shoulders  and  wade  through  the  water 
that  was  five  feet  deep.  While  they  were  crossing  the  ditch 
in  this  absurd  manner  hundreds  of  them  were  shot  down, 
and  the  forces  repulsed.  A  second  assault  was  then  made, 
but  with  no  better  success.  Then  Gen.  Packingham  made 
a  third  attempt  to  rally  his  men,  leading  them  himself ;  but 
as  he  came  near  the  ditch  he  was  shot  off  his  horse,  one  ball 
going  through  his  arm  and  another  piercing  his  thigh,  and 


172  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

his  horse  was  killed  under  him.  The  British  army  found 
it  impossible  to  endure  such  a  fire,  that  had  slaughtered 
them  by  hundreds  at  a  time,  so  they  gave  up  the  fight  and 
fled.  It  was  found  after  the  battle  that  over  2,000  British 
soldiers  lay  prostrate  on  the  battlefield — 500  dead  and 
1,500  wounded.  Jackson's  loss  was  six  men  killed  and 
seven  wounded.  It  was  the  greatest  victory  ever  achieved 
in  the  United  States,  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
fact  the  battle  was  fought  in  less  than  an  hour. 

I  can  remember  away  back  in  the  year  1828,  when  Gen. 
Jackson  ran  for  president,  that  one  of  the  means  resorted 
to  to  thrill  and  inspire  the  hearts  of  the  people  was  the  war 
songs.  At  that  time  they  had  no  brass  bands  or  French 
horns.  The  only  martial  music  was  the  fife  and  drum,  sup- 
plemented with  patriotic  songs.  One  of  these  was  called 
"The  Battle  of  New  Orleans."  It  described  the  parts  that 
the  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  boys  had  taken  in  the  battle, 
and  when  sung  by  a  dozen  or  more  strong  voices  it  had  a 
most  animating  effect  on  the  old  soldiers  and  the  crowds  of 
people  that  would  gather  to  listen  to  them. 

When  I  was  on  the  battlefield  I  was  anxious  to  get  some 
relics  to  carry  home  with  me.  While  trying  to  get  a  spade 
to  hunt  for  bullets,  etc.,  I  was  told  that  the  ground  had 
been  dug  over  so  often  that  I  would  find  nothing.  But  I 
met  a  Dutchman  who  had  many  relics  of  the  battle.  He 
had  three  bullets  which  he  called  the  "Packingham  Balls," 
which  he  claimed  to  have  found  near  the  spot  where  Gen. 
Packingham  was  slain.  One  was  a  rifle  ball,  one  a  large 
musket  ball  and  the  other  a  grape  shot  about  the  size  of  a 
black  walnut.  His  supposition  was  that  the  rifle  ball  was 
the  one  that  had  gone  through  Packingham's  arm,  that  the 
musket  ball  was  the  one  that  had  gone  through  his  thigh 
and  that  the  large  ball  had  killed  his  horse.  I  believed  that 
he  was  an  honest  Dutchman  and  did  find  the  balls  on  the 
battlefield,  though  I  did  not  take  much  stock  in  the  tale 
about  the  balls  killing  Packingham,  although  it  might  have 
happened.  But  I  thought  it  would  be  a  good  story  to  tell 
when  I  got  home,  so  I  paid  $2  for  the  balls. 

After  remaining  a  week  at  New  Orleans  we  took  boat 


ANDREW   JACKSON.  173 

over  the  gulf  for  Galveston,  Texas,  where  we  remained  for 
a  few  days,  and  then  went  down  to  Port  Lavaca,  where  I 
bought  a  span  of  ponies  and  a  light  carriage,  and  spent  the 
winter  traveling  over  the  country.  If  a  storm,  or  what  is 
called  in  Texas  a  "norther,"  came  up,  we  would  stop  a  few 
days  at  some  town  or  farm  house  until  it  was  over.  It  so 
happened  that  when  we  got  to  Austin,  the  capital  of  the 
state,  on  the  8th  of  January,  we  found  the  people  were  hold- 
ing a  grand  demonstration  in  honor  of  Jackson  and  the  vic- 
tory of  New  Orleans.  I  learned  that  the  8th  of  January 
was  celebrated  as  a  regular  holiday  in  most  of  the  towns  and 
cities  in  the  state. 

Here  in  California  the  8th  of  January  has  been  observed 
as  a  public  holiday  since  the  state  was  settled.  Here  in 
the  City  of  Oakland  we  had  one  of  the  grandest  celebrations 
January  8th,  1897,  that  has  ever  taken  place  in  the  city,  in 
honor  of  Gen.  Jackson  and  his  great  victory.  It  was  the 
occasion  of  the  dedication  of  a  fine  school  house  that  we  had 
just  completed  at  a  cost  of  $200,000.  We  were  not  able 
to  procure  a  hickory  pole  large  enough  to  bear  the  national 
flag,  as  hickory  timber  does  not  grow  wild  here  as  it  does  in 
Illinois.  But  it  happened  that  a  family  came  out  from 
Illinois  several  years  ago  and  brought  with  them  some  hick- 
ory nuts,  one  of  which  was  planted  in  her  father's  door 
yard  by  a  little  daughter,  and  it  grew  to  be  a  fine  tree.  On 
the  day  of  the  dedication  the  young  lady  presented  this  tree 
to  the  school  board,  and  they  planted  it  on  the  school 
grounds  in  honor  of  "Old  Hickory." 

Many  eloquent  speeches  were  made  on  this  occasion,  but 
one  of  the  speakers,  after  a  grand  eulogy  of  Gen.  Jackson, 
declared  that  after  he  was  elected  president  he  turned  every 
whig  out  of  office  and  put  a  democrat  in  his  place,  and  that 
no  whig  could  hold  an  office  under  his  administration.  It 
was  a  great  mistake.  I  remember  that  my  father,  who  was 
a  strong  whig,  and  did  all  he  could  for  the  election  of 
Adams,  soon  after  the  election  of  1828  moved  to  Havana, 
Illinois,  when  Jackson  appointed  him  postmaster  at  that 
place.  He  also  appointed  Abraham  Lincoln,  another  ar- 
dent whig,  to  be  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  in  the  place  of 


174  EA.KLY  PIONEEKS  AND  EVENTS. 

Samuel  Hill,  who  was  a  democrat.  I  knew  of  many  other 
cases  in  which  Gen.  Jackson  had  appointed  whigs  to  office. 
The  great  question  with  him  was,  "Is  he  honest,  and  is 
he  capable  ?  "  which  had  more  to  do  with  his  appointments 
than  the  question  of  politics. 

The  many  high  and  important  offices  that  Gen.  Jackson 
was  elected  to  and  appointed  to,  and  some  of  them  at  a  time 
when  he  was  quite  a  young  man,  will  show  the  confidence 
and  the  high  regard  in  which  he  was  held,  not  only  by  his 
own  state,  but  by  the  whole  nation,  for  he  was  elected 
State's  Attorney,  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court,  and  also 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee,  a  member  of 
Congress  and  a  United  States  Senator,  all  before  he  was 
thirty-one  years  of  age.  In  1824  he  ran  for  president,  his 
opponents  being  John  Quincy  Adams,  W.  H.  Crawford  and 
Henry  Clay,  and  out  of  261  electoral  votes  cast  he  got  99, 
Adams  84,  Crawford  47  and  Clay  37,  and  in  the  popular 
vote  he  got  a  majority  over  Adams  of  50,551  votes.  Neith- 
er of  the  candidates  having  received  a  majority  of  all  the 
votes,  it  was  carried  into  the  House,  and  by  some  maneuv- 
ering Adams  was  counted  in  and  Jackson  counted  out.  In 
1828  he  ran  again  for  president  against  John  Quincy 
Adams,  receiving  178  of  the  electoral  votes  to  Adams  83, 
and  a  majority  over  Adams  of  the  popular  vote  of  158,134. 
He  ran  again  in  1832  against  Henry  Clay,  Jackson  receiv- 
ing 218  of  the  electoral  votes  and  Clay  49,  and  a  majority 
of  the  popular  vote  of  157,313. 

I  must  close  these  sketches  of  Gen.  Jackson  with  a  brief 
review  of  his  childhood.  I  have  taken  great  pains  to  get 
these  interesting  facts  in  a  reliable  form. 

Gen.  Jackson's  parents  were  Scotch-Irish,  coming  from 
the  north  of  Ireland.  His  father's  name  was  Andrew 
Jackson  ;  his  mother's,  Elizabeth  Hutchinson.  When  they 
came  to  America  they  had  two  sons,  Hugh  and  Robert. 
Mrs.  J.  had  three  sisters  who  came  with  them  to  America. 
They  settled  in  the  Waxhaw  settlement  on  Waxhaw  creek, 
named  for  an  Indian  tribe  that  occupied  that  country.  It 
is  now  Union  county,  North  Carolina.  They  settled  on 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  175 

a  farm  as  a  renter  (this  was  in  1765),  and  within  two 
years  the  father  died.  The  mother  then  moved 
in  with  her  brother-in-law,  George  McCamis,  and 
in  a  week  after  the  father's  death  Andrew  was 
born,  March  15,  1767.  In  two  months  she  went  with 
her  children  to  live  with  another  brother-in-law,  Thomas 
Crawford,  who  had  married  another  sister  of  hers.  This 
sister  was  an  invalid,  and  Mrs.  Jackson  took  charge  of  the 
family  and  lived  there  most  of  the  time  until  her  death 
fifteen  years  later.  Her  son  Hugh  worked  for  his  uncle, 
McCamis,  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  war, 
when  he  enlisted  as  a  patriot  and  soon  died  of  the  hardships 
and  privations  of  army  life.  Her  remaining  sons,  Robert 
and  Andrew,  were  not  old  enough  to  go  into  the  army,  but 
were  called  into  the  service,  with  many  other  boys  of  the 
settlement,  to  guard  and  protect  their  homes  and  property 
against  the  British  soldiers  who  were  making  raids  upon 
them,  destroying  property,  stealing  horses,  etc.  All  the 
older  men  had  gone  to  war,  leaving  the  women  and  boys  to 
stand  guard  about  their  homes.  While  Robert  and  Andrew 
and  other  boys  were  thus  engaged  a  company  of  red-coats 
came  upon  them  and  took  them  prisoners  and  marched 
them  off  to  Camden,  a  British  garrison  forty  miles  away. 
After  they  had  been  prisoners  a  few  weeks,  Mrs.  Jackson, 
who  was  a  brave  and  resolute  woman,  determined  that  she 
would  go  to  Camden  and  try  to  get  her  sons  released.  So 
she  set  out  for  the  British  garrison  on  horseback  and  alone. 
When  she  got  to  the  fort  she  found  her  two  boys  in  a  terri- 
ble predicament.  They  had  had  an  encounter  with  one  of 
the  British  officers  and  had  been  cruelly  treated.  The 
officer  had  ordered  Andrew  to  clean  and  black  his  boots, 
which  he  refused  to  do,  telling  the  officer  that  although  he 
was  a  prisoner  of  war,  he  would  not  black  his  boots.  The 
officer  struck  him  on  the  head  with  his  sword,  when  Andrew 
threw  up  his  hands  to  guard  off  the  blow  he  received  a  cut 
on  his  arm,  and  also  on  the  side  of  his  head,  the  scars  of 
which  he  carried  to  his  grave.  The  officer  then  ordered 
Robert  to  clean  and  black  his  boots ;  he  also  refused  to  do 
it,  and  the  officer  knocked  him  down  and  beat  him  terribly. 


176  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND   EVENTS. 

So  when  Mrs.  Jackson  found  her  boys  in  prison,  she  found 
that  in  addition  to  their  wounds  that  both  had  taken  the 
small-pox,  which  was  raging  at  a  terrible  rate  in  the  prison. 
She  went  to  the  chief  officer  and  plead  for  their  deliverance, 
and  succeeded  in  getting  them  released.  She  then  procured 
another  horse,  and  they  started  home  on  their  forty-mile 
ride.  When  they  got  within  an  hour's  ride  of  their  home 
there  came  up  a  dreadful  rain  that  drenched  them  to  the 
skin.  It  very  greatly  aggravated  the  small-pox,  and  Robert 
died  a  few  days  after  she  had  gotten  him  home.  Andrew 
barely  escaped  death  by  the  kind  and  careful  nursing  of 
his  mother. 

Two  months  after  word  came  to  the  settlement  from 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  which  was  then  in  possession  of  the  Brit- 
ish army,  that  great  distress  and  suffering  and  sickness 
were  prevailing  among  the  American  prisoners  there.  A 
number  of  the  prisoners  were  from  the  Waxhaw  settlement, 
and  among  them  were  several  of  her  nephews.  Mrs.  Jack- 
son was  prevailed  upon  to  go  with  two  other  ladies  to 
Charleston  with  clothing,  medicines,  etc.,  for  the  prisoners, 
and  also  to  secure,  if  possible,  their  release  or  exchange. 
So  she  started  with  her  two  friends  on  the  long  journey  of 
150  miles,  on  horseback ;  and  when  they  got  there  they 
found  that  the  prisoners  were  confined  on  a  ship,  and  that 
the  ship  fever  was  prevailing  among  them.  So  after  min- 
istering to  the  wants  of  the  soldiers  and  doing  what  they 
could  for  their  relief,  they  started  on  their  journey  home. 
They  stopped  one  night  at  a  farm  house,  when  Mrs.  Jack- 
son was  taken  down  with  the  ship  fever  contracted  while  on 
the  ship,  and  growing  worse,  died  in  a  few  days,  and  was 
buried  in  that  locality.  It  was  sad  news  to  take  back  to  An- 
drew and  their  friends.  Nothing  could  be  done  about  bring- 
ing back  her  remains,  because  it  was  a  long  distance,  and  the 
weather  was  hot,  and  besides  that  they  were  poor  people. 
Andrew,  at  the  time  of  her  death,  was  fifteen  years  old,  and 
his  father,  mother,  brothers  and  sisters  were  all  dead.  But 
he  continued  to  live  with  his  uncle,  Thomas  Crawford,  and 
attended  the  school  in  the  log  school  house.  The  branches 
taught  were  reading,  writing,  geography  and  arithmetic. 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  177 

His  mother  had  often  spoken  of  her  wish  to  educate  him  for 
a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  would  have  tried  to  do  so  if 
she  had  lived.  He  often  spoke  of  his  good,  Christian 
mother,  and  with  much  sorrow  of  her  sad  death  and  burial, 
for  she  sacrificed  her  life  for  others. 

When  Gen.  Jackson  was  a  member  of  Congress  the  first 
time  he  employed  two  men  to  go  and  see  if  they  could  find 
his  mother's  grave,  and  if  so,  to  remove  her  body  to  the 
place  where  his  father  was  buried.  But  the  men  could  not 
find  her  grave.  There  was  no  stone  to  mark  the  spot,  and 
the  country  had  undergone  many  changes,  so  that  there  was 
no  clue  to  her  burial  place.  It  was  all  the  loving  and  loyal 
son  could  do. 

When  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1828, 
and  every  vile  thing  that  could  be  hatched  up  was  told  about 
him,  it  was  said  that  his  wife  came  into  his  room  one  day 
when  he  was  reading  a  newspaper,  and  found  him  in  tears. 
On  her  inquiry  about  what  the  trouble  was,  he  showed  her 
a  paragraph  in  the  newspaper  stating  that  his  mother  had 
been  a  washer-woman  and  filled  a  pauper's  grave.  He  said 
to  his  wife : 

"  I  can  defend  your  character  and  mine ;  but  when  they 
assail  my  devoted  mother,  it  almost  breaks  my  heart." 

There  was  one  grand  and  noble  trait  of  character  in  the 
General  that  drew  people  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel.  I  was 
told  by  men  who  had  been  with  him  in  the  army  how  kind 
and  considerate  he  was  to  his  soldiers.  In  one  of  their  long 
marches  from  Natchez  to  Nashville,  a  distance  of  500  miles 
through  a  wilderness  country,  the  officers,  of  course,  were 
on  horseback,  while  the  soldiers  were  afoot.  Often  the  Gen- 
eral would  fall  back  to  the  rear  to  look  after  the  sick  and 
disabled  soldiers,  and  it  was  common  for  him  to  dismount 
and  place  some  sick  or  lame  soldier  on  his  horse,  while  he 
trudged  along  on  foot  with  the  men  day  after  day  through 
the  miry  road,  gay  and  cheerful,  inspiring  his  men  with 
his  splendid  courage  and  unselfishness.  It  was  on  this  long 
and  dreadful  march  that  he  got  the  name  of  "Hickory." 
In  the  first  place  one  of  the  soldiers  remarked :  "  The  gen- 
oral  is  tough."  Then  another  said:  "He  is  as  tough  as 


ITS  EARLY   PIONEERS    AND    EVENTS. 

hickory."  Then  they  commenced  to  call  him  "  Hickory 
Jackson/'  and  as  he  advanced  in  age,  they  applied  to  him 
the  name  "  Old  Hickory,"  and  the  honored  name  followed 
him  to  his  death.  • 

In  tracing  the  life  of  Gen.  Jackson  we  find  many  things 
to  admire.  In  the  first  place  he  was  born  into  the  world 
with  a  good,  strong  constitution,  with  good  common-sense, 
and  with  a  good  back-hone,  so  that  he  was  always  ready  to 
stand  up  for  the  rights  of  the  people.  But  the  great  and 
crowning  glory  of  his  life  was  his  grand  and  glorious  vic- 
tory at  New  Orleans  with  his  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
militia,  over  the  renowned  Major-General  Sir  Edward 
Packingham  of  the  British  army  with  his  chosen  and  well- 
drilled  soldiers.  ISTo  doubt  the  General,  in  looking  over  that 
battlefield,  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  2,000  enemies  slain 
and  wounded,  while  his  loss  was  but  five  killed  and  seven 
wounded,  must  have  felt  something  of  exultation  over  the 
foe  that  had  so  cruelly  treated  him  and  his  brothers  and 
caused  the  death  of  his  beloved  mother. 

General  Jackson's  parents  were  Scotch-Irish  Presbyteri- 
ans, and  he  inherited  their  reverence  for  religion  and  for 
ministers.  He  was  always  a  generous  contributor  to  the 
church  and  religious  institutions.  Previous  to  his  wife's 
death  he  gave  her  a  solemn  promise  that  he  would  unite 
with  the  church  and  live  a  Christian's  life.  This  promise 
he  complied  with  about  five  years  before  his  death.  He 
united  with  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  was  asked  to  ac- 
cept the  office  of  ruling  elder,  but  declined  the  office.  He 
said: 

"  I  am  too  young  in  the  church  for  such  an  office.  My 
countrymen,"  he  said,  "  have  given  me  high  honors,  but  I 
should  esteem  the  office  of  ruling  elder  in  the  church  of 
Jesus  Christ  a  far  higher  honor  than  any  I  have  ever  re- 
ceived." 

He  was  strongly  attached  to  his  slaves,  and  in  his  will  he 
distributed  them  among  his  wife's  relatives,  so  that  they 
should  not  be  sold  outside  the  family.  But  the  time  came 
for  him  to  die.  His  faculties  were  clear  and  bright  up  to 


ANDREW  JACKSON.  179 

the  hour  of  his  death.  He  called  his  family  and  servants 
about  his  bed  and  said  he  wanted  to  meet  them  all  in 
Heaven,  black  and  white.  He  said  he  was  ready  and  pre- 
pared to  go,  that  death  was  only  the  dark  pathway  opening 
into  a  blessed  and  endless  life.  The  funeral  sermon  was 
preached  by  Rev.  Dr.  Edgar,  of  Nashville,  from  the  text, 
"  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation  and 
washed  their  robes  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  It 
was  the  largest  funeral  ever  known  in  Nashville,  except 
that  of  his  beloved  wife. 

This  country  has  had  few  men  honored  and  beloved  by 
the  masses  of  the  people  as  was  Gen.  Jackson.  For  many 
long  years  will  his  noble  deeds  and  sacrifices  and  his  sacred 
memory  be  cherished  deep  down  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful 
country  and  a  generous  people. 


peter  Cartwrigbt 


CHAPTER  I. 

MR.  CARTWRIGHT'S  SUCCESSFUL  EFFORTS  TO  DEFEAT  SLAV- 
ERY.  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  ILLINOIS  IN  1824. 

When  Peter  Cartwright  came  from  Kentucky  to  Sanga- 
mon county  in  1823  and  bought  a  farm  seven  miles  west 
of  Springfield,  he  found  the  people  greatly  agitated  (as  I 
have  said  in  a  former  letter)  over  the  question  whether 
Illinois  should  be  a  slave  or  free  state.  An  election  to 
settle  the  question  was  called  for  the  first  Monday  in 
August,  1824.  He  had  left  Kentucky  to  get  away  from 
slavery,  and  it  was  natural,  with  his  gQTTibPtlvp  fHgjvvgit.irm., 
that  he  should  go  into  the  battle  for  freedom  with  all  his 
soul  and  might.  He  thoroughly  canvassed  the  counties 
of  Sangamon  and  Morgan,  making  speeches  against  slavery 
in  all  the  churches  and  schoolhouses,  or  wherever  he  could 
get  an  audience. 

At  that  time  there  were  but  thirty  counties  in  the  state, 
and  Sangamon  and  Morgan  were  the  two  northern  counties 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Illinois  river.  Pike  and  Fulton 
were  the  only  counties  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  Ful- 
ton was  the  extreme  northern  county,  taking  in  Fort  Clark 
(now  Peoria)  and  Galena  and  Chicago. 

There  was  at  that  time  in  Fulton  county  a  man  who 
perhaps  did  as  much  to  defeat  slavery  as  did  Mr.  Cart- 
wright or  any  other  man  in  Illinois.  His  name  was  Os- 
sian  M.  Ross.  He  thoroughly  canvassed  the  counties  of 
Fulton  and  Pike.  He  was  a  Quaker,  and  the  Quakers 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  human  slavery.  He  went  into 
the  conflict  with  all  his  might,  and  never  ceased  until  the 
votes  were  counted  and  the  battle  of  freedom  won.  I  be- 
lieve there  was  more  credit  due  him  and  Peter  Cartwright 

ISO 


PETER  CART  WRIGHT.  181 

for  carrying  the  state  against  slavery  than  any  other  two 
men  in  Illinois.  Following  is  the  vote  on  that  question. 
The  vote  of  Morgan,  Sangamon,  Pike  and  Fulton  will 
show  how  well  they  succeeded. 

THE  VOTE  ON  SLAVERY. 

*  For.  Against. 

Alexander    75  51 

Bond    63  240 

Clark    32  116 

Crawford    134  262 

Edgar    3  234 

Edwards    186  371 

Fayette, .J25^  121 

TTranklin    TfO  113 

Fulton   5  60 

Gallatin    596  133 

Greene    134  405 

Hamilton    173  86 

Jackson    ^1SO>  93 

"Jefferson    ^    90  43 

Johnson    74  74 

Lawrence    158  261 

Madison    351  58 

Marion    45  53 

Montgomery    74  99 

Monroe    171  196 

Morgan    "^43  555 

Pike    23  261 

Pope 275  124 

Eandolgh    J57^  184 

"Sangambn    "To3  722 

St.  Clair 427  543 

Union 213  240 

Washington    112  173 

Wayne    189  111 

White    .  355  326 


Total  .   4950  6822 


Majority  against  slavery 1872 


182  EA.BLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

After  Mr.    Cartwright  had  finished  his  fight  against 
slavery  he  returned  to  Kentucky  to  finish  his  preparations 
for  removal  to  Illinois.     In  the  fall  of  1824  he  started 
with  two  wagons  drawn  by  horses  for  his  new  home  in  the 
wilderness  of  Illinois.     They  met  with  some  sad  misfor- 
tunes on  the  road.     At  one  time  one  of  the  wagonsfcwas 
overturned,  seriously  injuring  one  of  his  daughters.  While 
encamped  one  night  in  the  great  forest  a  tree  fell  upon 
/another  daughter,  crushing  her  to  death.     They  had  to 
I  carry  the  mangled  body  twenty  miles  before  they  could 
1  procure  a  coffin  and  give  the  child  decent  burial. 

When  they  arrived  at  their  new  home  Mr.  Cartwjight 
found  that  the  election  had  gone  to  his  satisfaction.  ffiot- 
withstanding  slavery  had  been  voted  down  by  the  decisive 
majority  of  1,872  votes,  the  slavery  party  was  not  anni- 
hilated. They  pretended  to  believe  that  their  vote  had  not 
all  turned  out,  and  hoped  that  they  might  win  in  another 
election.  They  had  a  large  majority  in  both  branches  of 
the  legislature,  and  were  determined  to  secure  another 
election.  It  was  true  that  Edward  Coles,  an  anti-slavery 
man,  had  been  elected  governor;  but  there  had  been  four 
candidates,  and  the  slavery  vote  had  been  divided,  causing 
Coles  to  be  elected  by  a  small  majority^ 

In  the  early  settlement  of  Illinois  the  southern  part  of 
the  state  was  settled  first,  and  mainly  by  people  from  the 
slave  states.  These  people  brought  with  them  their  slave 
laws,  slave  prejudices,  and  many  of  them  also  brought  their 
slaves.  They  found  that  many  of  the  staple  products  of 
the  South,  such  as  hemp,  tobacco  and  cotton,  could  be  raised 
in  southern  Illinois,  and  they  believed  that  these  products 
could  not  be  profitably  raised  without  slave  labor.  There 
was  another  condition  that  influenced  the  people  to  favor 
slavery:  About  that  time  a  tremendous  emigration  was 
pouring  through  southern  Illinois  into  Missouri  from  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  every  great 
road  was  crowded  with  these  movers  in  long  trains  of 
teams,  and  with  their  negroes,  and  with  plenty  of  money. 
They  were  the  wealthiest  and  best  educated  emigrants 
from  the  slave  states.  The  early  settlers  of  Illinois  saw 


PETEK  CAKT WEIGHT.  183 

it  all  and  with  great  envy  for  Missouri's  good  fortune. 
The  lordly  emigrant  as  he  passed  along  with  his  droves 
of  negroes  and  piles  of  money  took  malicious  delight  in 
adding  to  the  unrest  by  pretending  to  regret  the  short- 
sighted policy  of  Illinois  which  excluded  him  by  declaring 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  This  gave  the  people 
of  southern  Illinois  a  strong  desire  to  hold  another  elec- 
tion, hoping  that  slavery  might  be  voted  in. 

And  so  the  agitation  was  kept  up  from  year  to  year. 
The  same  infamous  old  "  black  laws  "  were  still  on  the 
statute  book,  and  many  negroes  were  held  in  slavery,  espe- 
cially in  the  southern  counties  along  the  Ohio  and  Missis- 
sippi rivers.  They  were  hemmed  in  by  slave  states,  Ken- 
tucky on  the  southeast  and  Missouri  on  the  west.  So. 
the  sentiment  was  strong  for  slavery.  There  were  but 
few  men  in  the  legislature  who  dared  oppose  these  bad 
laws  or  slavery.  It  would  have  been  a  very  unpopular  if 
not  dangerous  step.  Then  there  was  great  fear  of  being 
called  an  "  abolitionist,"  the  most  odious  epithet  that  in 
those  times  could  be  applied  to  a  man. 

But  in  1828  there  was  to  be  an  election  for  representa-  / 
tives,  and  the  friends  of  free  territory  prevailed  upon  Mr.  * 
Cartwright  to  become  a  candidate,   and  he  was  elected    a 
without  much  opposition  from  the  northern  counties.     He 
believed  that  he  could  for  a  few  months  serve  his  God  and 
his  country  as  acceptably  in  the  general  assembly  as  in 
preaching  the  gospel. 

By  this  time  the  northern  counties  were  settling  up  with 
people  from  the  East,  and  the  tide  turned  forever  against 
the  friends  of  slavery.  Mr.  Cartwright  with  the  help  of 
other  members  of  the  legislature  was  able  to  have  some  of 
the  infamous  "  black  laws  "  repealed  and  excellent  laws 
enacted  in  their  stead.  It  was  a  grand  and  noble  work.* 
I  may  have  more  to  say  on  this  subject  in  a  later  sketch. 


184  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MR.     CARTWKIGHT    AS    A    GREAT     PREACHER    AND    A     GREAT 

ORGANIZER. THE     JACKSONVILE     ORDINANCE     AND     HOW 

MR.   CARTWRIGHT  ASSISTED   IN   ITS  ENFORCEMENT. 

When  Peter  Cartwright  came  to  Illinois  in  1824,  and 
settled  seven  miles  east  of  Springfield,  at  what  was  after- 
wards known  as  Pleasant  Plains,  he  found  the  country  very 
sparsely  settled.  Sangamon  county  at  that  time  extended 
north  as  far  as  the  northern  part  of  the  state,  the  settle- 
ments were  few  and  far  between  and  there  was  not  a  church 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  county.  Springfield  was  a 
small  village,  and  the  only  place  they  had  for  public  wor- 
ship was  a  small  frame  school  house,  but  in  about  a  year 
after  Mr.  Cartwright  came  to  that  place  the  Methodist  and 
Presbyterian  congregations  joined  in  building  a  small  brick 
church,  which  was  the  first  brick  building  erected  in  Spring- 
field. The  two  congregations  used  this  building  alternate- 
ly for  two  years,  when  the  Methodists  sold  out  their  interest 
in  the  property  and  built  for  themselves  a  frame  church 
much  larger  in  size. 

Mr.  Cartwright  possessed  too  much  of  a  missionary  spir- 
it, however,  to  settle  down  in  one  place.  He  looked  upon 
the  whole  state  of  Illinois  as  his  field  of  labor,  and  would 
travel  from  place  to  place,  organizing  a  church  and  Sunday 
school  wherever  he  could  find  a  few  families  gathered  to- 
gether, and  preaching  in  the  homes  of  the  people  and  in  log 
school  houses.  But  his  great  forte  in  carrying  on  his  mis- 
sionary and  evangelical  work  was  his  campmeetings.  He 
would  hold  ten-day  campmeetings  in  every  part  of  the 
country,  and  people  would  flock  from  miles  around  to  at- 
tend them. 

Mr.  Cartwright  was  not  only  a  great  preacher,  but  it 
might  be  said  of  him,  as  of  Lincoln,  that  he  was  a  born 
leader.  He  was  a  great  organizer,  and  had  held  the  office 
of  presiding  elder  ever  since  he  was  twenty-two  years  old. 


PETER  C  ART  WEIGHT.  185 

He  had  a  most  excellent  control  over  his  members,  and 
would  allow  no  drones  in  his  camp.  In  those  primitive 
times  it  was  not  considered  necessary  that  a  teacher  of  re- 
ligion should  be  a  scholar.  It  was  thought  to  be  his  busi- 
ness to  preach  from  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
guiding  and  controlling  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Their  wonderful  success  at  those  meetings  might  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  earnestness  and  zeal  with  which  they  picturedl  <{  ^^ 
the  blessings  of  Heaven  and  the  awful  torments  of  the  wick- 1 
ed  in  fire  and  brimstone.  They  believed  with  certainty 
that  they  saw  the  souls  of  wicked  men  rushing  headlong  to 
perdition,  and  they  stepped  forward  to  warn  and  to  save 
with  all  the  self-devotion  of  a  generous  man  who  risks  his 
own  life  to  save  that  of  a  drowning  neighbor.  And  to  these 
earnest,  Christian  people  are  we  indebted  for  the  spread  of 
the  protestant  religion  through  Illinois  at  that  early  day. 
At  many  of  those  campmeetings  there  would  be  from  200 
to  300  conversions. 

In  1832  the  democratic  party  again  brought  out  Peter 
Cartwright  for  the  legislature.  He  was  a  farmer  as  well 
as  a  preacher,  and  was  very  popular  with  the  farmers. 
He  had  also  given  good  satisfaction  in  the  legislature,  to 
which  he  was  elected  in  1,89^  having  been  instrumental  in 
repealing  several  of  the  obnoxious  laws  which  had  disgraced  I 
the  state,  and  the  people  wanted  to  send  him  back.  This  || 
time  he  defeated  Abraham  Lincoln.  When  he  was  in  the 
legislature  he  had  two  prohibition  laws  enacted.  One 
was  that  no  saloon  or  drinking  house  should  be  permitted 
within  one  mile  of  Jacksonville,  and  was  known  as  the 
"  Jacksonville  Ordinance."  The  Jacksonville  college  had 
been  established,  and  was  then  the  only  college  in  the  state. 
The  other  prohibitive  law  was  that  no  saloon  or  drinking 
house  should  be  erected  or  permitted  to  run  within  one 
mile  of  a  campmeeting.  Mr.  Cartwright  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  assist  in  enacting  this  latter  law  in  Fulton  county 
in  1833.  He  had  erected  a  campmeeting  on  the  west  side 
^of  Canton,  near  where  the  old  Methodist  church  stood. 
There  was  then  a  handsome  grove  of  timber  standing  there. 
They  had  got  their  shed  and  preacher's  stand  put  up  and 


186  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

everything  in  order  for  the  meeting  when  a  man  from  Can- 
ton set  up  a  huckster's  stand  with  cigars,  tobacco,  and  all 
kinds  of  ardent  spirits  within  a  few  rods  of  the  camp- 
grounds. Mr.  Cartwright  went  to  him  and  told  him  he 
would  have  to  move  his  drinking  establishment,  as  it  was 
against  the  law  to  sell  liquor  within  a  mile  of  a  campmeet- 
ing.  The  man  told  him  he  had  plenty  of  friends  to  back 
him  and  he  would  continue  to  sell,  so  Cartwright  swore  out 
a  warrant  for  his  arrest  and  had  him  taken  before  Esquire 
Stillman  for  trial.  A  young  lawyer  in  Canton  defended 
the  prisoner,  while  Cartwright  prosecuted  the  case.  The 
court  imposed  a  fine  of  $10,  which  the  huckster  said  he 
would  not  pay,  so  the  necessary  papers  were  made  out  com- 
mitting him  to  the  county  jail.  But  the  man  defied  the 
constable,  telling  him  that  he  could  not  find  men  enough  in 
Canton  to  take  him.  The  constable  was  completely  cowed, 
as  he  was  afraid  of  the  man's  friends  who  had  promised  to 
protect  him,  but  Mr.  Cartwright  told  the  constable  to  sum- 
mons him  and  two  of  his  church  members  and  they  would 
take  him.  One  of  the  churchmen  went  into  the  woods  and 
cut  a  stout  hickory  cane  for  each  of  the  three,  and  they 
hoisted  the  man  on  a  horse  and  started  for  Lewistown.  He 
believed  that  his  friends  would  rescue  him  from  the  officers 
and  kept  looking  back  every  few  miles  to  see  if  they  were 
coming,  but  they  never  made  their  appearance,  and  when 
they  got  in  sight  of  Lewistown  the  man  gave  up  all  hope 
and  paid  his  fine.  They  all  turned  back  for  Canton,  but 
that  put  a  stop  to  setting  up  saloons  near  campmeetings  in 
Fulton  county.  At  the  close  of  this  campmeeting  Mr.  Cart- 
wright reported  that  ninety  persons  had  been  soundly  con- 


Canton. 


PETER   CARTWRIGHT.  1ST 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  NAME  OF  PETER  CARTWRIGHT  FAMILIAR  THROUGH- 
OUT  THE  STATE. HIS  EFFORTS  TO  DRIVE  OUT  THE  MOR- 
MONS.  GRAND  OVATION  TENDERED  HIM  IN  1869. 

HIS  LABORS  AT  EIGHTY-SIX  YEARS  OF  AGE. AN  INCIDENT 

OF  HIS  LAST  MISSIONARY  TOUR. 

The  career  of  Peter  Cartwright  has  been  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  eventful  known  in  the  history  of  the 
great  northwest.  There  was  scarcely  a  town  or  village  or 
city  in  Illinois  where  the  name  of  Peter  Cartwright  was 
not  familiar.  He  had  been  for  sixty-five  years  an  ef- 
fective itinerant  Methodist  preacher,  not  having  lost  six 
months'  labor  in  that  long  period  of  time.  During  that 
period  he  served  as  presiding  elder  fifty  years.  He  had 
wonderful  powers  of  oratory,  and  often  at  his  campmeetr  J 
ings  there  would  be  200  to  300  conversions  under  his 
preaching. 

He  first  visited  that  section  of  country  between  the 
Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers  in  1827.  He  crossed  the 
Illinois  river  at  Beardstown,  and  traveled  across  the  coun- 
try to  Atlas  on  the  Mississippi  river,  that  town  then  being 
the  county  seat  of  Pike  county.  He  there  found  some 
ten  or  twelve  families,  and  among  them  were  three 
brothers,  William,  John  and  Leonard  Ross.  They  had 
laid  out  the  town  of  Atlas.  They  came  from  the  state  of 
New  York.  They  had  bought  up  considerable  land  in 
that  vicinity.  Mr.  Cartwright  stopped  with  William 
Ross  over  night  and  attended  a  campmeeting  that  was 
held  ten  miles  from  Atlas,  which  was  the  first  campmeet- 
ing held  in  Pike  county.  The  same  fall  he  held  a  camp- 
meeting  in  Schuyler  county,  near  Rushville.  He  came 
into  Fulton  county,  stayed  at  my  father's  house  in  Lewis- 
town  over  night,  and  preached  that  evening  in  the  log 
courthouse  at  Lewistown.  He  went  from  there  to  Canton, 


188  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

where  he  attended  a  campmeeting  that  was  held  in  a  beau- 
tiful grove  of  timber  on  the  west  side  of  Canton.  That 
was  the  second  campmeeting  that  was  held  in  the  county. 
After  the  campmeeting  was  over  he  took  a  trip  up  into  the 
Rock  river  country  that  was  then  settled  with  Indians. 
His  great  and  sympathetic  heart  went  out  for  the  good 
and  welfare  of  the  poor  Indians,  as  well  as  for  the  white 
people.  He  believed  that  civilizing  and  Christianizing 
them  was  far  better  than  fighting  them.  He  was  instru- 
.  .mental  in  having  his  church  establish  a  mission  among 
/KJ  V/the  Pottawattomie  Indians,  which  was  located  on  Hock 
I  river;  and  it  might  truthfully  be  said  that  he  was  the  first 
missionary  that  labored  among  those  wild  Indians.  He 
|was  appointed  superintendent  of  the  mission  and  con- 
ducted it  with  much  ability  until  the  Indians  were  driven 
out  of  the  country  during  the  Black  Hawk  war. 

Mr.  Cartwright  was  always  in  politics  a  democrat  of 
the  Andrew  Jackson  stamp.  He  was  twice  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Illinois  legislature,  his  opponent  at  one  time 
being  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  ran  on  the  Whig  ticket. 
That  party  being  in  the  majority  in  his  district  at  the 
time,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  by  a  small  majority. 

Mr.  Cartwright  was  a  descendant  of  a  loyal  and  patriotic 
ancestry,  his  father  having  served  for  two  and  one-half 
years  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  for  American  Inde- 
pendence; and  when  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  in  the 
south  took  place,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  called  for  volunteers, 
Mr.  Cartwright  rushed  to  Springfield  and  hoisted  the 
American  flag  on  the  top  of  the  Methodist  church  in  that 
city,  and  used  all  of  his  influence  to  put  down  the  Rebel- 
lion. 

Mr.  Cartwright,  who  had  labored  so  heroically  when  he 
first  came  to  Illinois  to  prevent  the  planting  of  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery  on  the  soil  of  that  state,  found,  after  he 
had  lived  in  the  state  about  twenty  years,  that  an  effort 
was  being  made  to  plant  another  institution  over  the  state 
which  he  regarded  as  being  almost  as  pernicious  and  vile 
as  that  of  slavery,  and  that  was  Mormonism,  which  in- 
cluded polygamy,  and  his  righteous  indignation  was 


PETEK   CAKTWBIGHT.  189 

aroused  to  the  highest  pitch.  For  the  Mormons,  who  had 
been  driven  out  of  Missouri  for  their  bad  conduct,  had 
crossed  the  Mississippi  and  had  spread  themselves  over 
several  of  the  counties  in  Illinois,  and  their  preachers  and 
elders  traveled  through  every  town  and  neighborhood  and 
were  very  zealous  in  propagating  their  doctrines  and  win- 
ning over  converts  to  their  religion ;  and  they  also  took  an 
active  part  in  the  politics  of  the  times,  and  at  all  elections 
they  cast  their  votes  as  a  unit ;  and  in  some  of  the  counties 
they  had  elected  some  of  their  elders  to  seats  in  the  legis- 
lature and  to  fill  county  offices.  So  Peter  Cartwright  got 
after  the  Mormons  with  all  the  power  and  might  that  he 
possessed,  and  did  much  to  check  their  pernicious  and  mis- 
chievous conduct  in  many  localities. 

After  Mr.  Cartwright  had  been  elected  the  fiftieth  time 
as  a  presiding  elder,  his  church,  which  convened  in  con- 
ference at  Quincy  in  1868,  passed  a  resolution  that  at 
their  next  conference,  that  was  to  be  held  at  Lincoln  in 
1869,  that  a  grand  ovation,  or  a  kind  of  jubilee,  should 
be  given  him  in  honor  of  his  fifty  years'  service  as  presid- 
ing elder.  At  that  conference  a  very  large  number  of 
ministers  were  present — the  largest  that  had  ever  before 
assembled  in  Illinois.  Also  a  number  of  ministers  came 
from  other  states  to  pay  their  homage  and  respect  to  the 
grand  old  veteran.  Rev.  I.  P.  Newman  came  all  the  way 
from  Washington  City  to  see  him.  Many  eloquent 
speeches  were  made,  many  letters  of  congratulations  were 
read,  and  many  handsome  and  costly  presents  were  given 
him.  Among  the  letters  read  were  notable  ones  from  Ex- 
Governors  Richard  Yates  and  R.  J.  Oglesby.  In  Gov- 
ernor Yates'  letter,  among  the  many  good  things  he  had  to 
say  about  the  old  elder,  was  the  following : 

"  During  the  war,  when  the  governor  of  the  state  need- 
ed the  support  of  all  good  men  in  the  union  cause,  he  felt 
cheered  and  strengthened  by  the  earnest  approval  and 
strong  influence  of  Peter  Cartwright." 


190  EARLY  PIONEEKS  AND   EVENTS. 

In  Gov.  Oglesby's  letter  he  said : 

"  For  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  the  name  of  Peter  Cart- 
wright  has  been  a  household  word  in  our  western  country. 
Bold,  honest,  earnest  and  untiring,  he  has  stood  on  the 
frontier  of  advancing  civilization  to  proclaim  the  truth  of 
God  and  history.  It  is  the  completion  of  his  semi-centen- 
nial eldership  of  your  church.  A  jubilee  such  as  this  can 
come  to  few  men.  Few  are  favored  with  such  length  of 
life  in  which  to  do  good  for  mankind." 

At  the  jubilee  conference  Gov.  Oglesby  sent  to  the  com- 
mittee a  beautiful  and  magnificent  chair  with  his  compli- 
ments, as  follows: 

"  I  will  thank  you  to  present  the  chair  sent  to  your  care 
to  Elder  Cartwright,  and  request  that  he  will  accept  it  as  a 
testimonial  of  friendship  and  respect,  upon  which,  in  the 
weary  days  of  an  honorable  old  age,  he  may  occasionally  be 
\seated  to  rest  from  his  labors. 

"  E.  J".  OGLESBY." 

At  the  time  of  the  jubilee  conference  Elder  Cartwright 
was  eighty-four  years  of  age,  though  he  lived  to  his  eighty- 

I  seventh  year,  and  his  wife  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-six. 
They  lived  together  as  husband  and  wife  for  sixty-four 
years.  They  had  nine  children  (two  sons  and  seven  daugh- 
ters), fifty  grandchildren,  thirty-seven  great-grandchildren 
and  one  great-great-grandson.  Three  of  their  daughters 
married  traveling  Methodist  Episcopal  ministers,  two  of 
whom  had  been  presiding  elders ;  and  all  of  their  children, 
and  many  of  their  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren, 
were  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 

After  the  jubilee  conference  was  over,  in  1869,  Mr.  Cart- 
wright concluded  that  he  would  retire  from  further  labors 
and  spend  the  balance  of  his  days  with  his  wife  on  their 
beautiful  farm  at  Pleasant  Plains  where  they  had  lived  for 
forty  years.  The  old  elder  stood  it  bravely  for  six  months, 
and  then  he  became  restless  and  uneasy,  and  his  old  pro- 
pensity and  desire  for  preaching  and  the  distribution  of 


PETER   CARTWRIGHT.  191 

religious  books  and  tracts  came  back  upon  him  so 
that  he  could  stand  leisure  and  idleness  no  longer.  So  he 
packed  a  carpet-sack  with  religious  literature  and  started 
off  on  a  missionary  tour.  He  traveled  through  several  of 
the  states  and  territories,  and  on  his  return  he  said  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  I  will  furnish  a  brief  statement  of  my  labors  during 
this  year.  I  have  dedicated  eight  churches,  preached  at 
seventy-seven  funerals,  addressed  eight  schools,  baptized 
twenty  adults  and  fifty  children,  married  five  couples,  re- 
ceived fifteen  into  the  church  on  probation  and  twenty-five 
into  full  connection;  have  raised  $25  missionary  money; 
have  donated  $20  for  new  churches,  written  112  letters, 
received  in  donations  $50,  and  for  my  lectures  and  sermons 
$700 ;  for  traveling  expenses  $650,  and  sold  $200  worth  of 
books." 

ISTow  that  was  certainly  a  good  account  of  stewardship 
for  a  year's  labor  by  a  man  that  was  eighty-six  years  of  age. 

Mr.  Cartwright,  on  his  return  from  his  last  year's  mis- 
sionary tour,  had  many  circumstances  and  incidents  of  very 
great  interest  to  relate,  and  I  will  relate  one  of  them :  He 
had  taken  his  seat  in  the  cars  one  day  when  a  lady  came  and 
introduced  herself  to  him,  stating  that  he  had  baptized  her 
when  she  was  a  child,  and  that  then  she  had  a  large  family, 
who  were  with  her  in  the  cars ;  that  they  were  moving  to  a 
distant  part  of  the  country,  away  from  church  privileges, 
and  she  wanted  him  to  baptize  her  family.  When  the  con- 
ductor came  into  the  car  he  told  him  that  this  lady  desired 
him  to  baptize  her  children,  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
allow  him  the  privilege.  The  conductor  told  him  that 
there  were  a  great  many  passengers  on  the  cars  who  were 
in  a  hurry  to  get  through,  and  he  could  not  stop  the  train. 
He  told  the  conductor  that  if  he  would  grant  him  the  priv- 
ilege he  could  baptize  them  if  his  train  was  .  running  at 
ightning  speed.  The  conductor  told  him  to  go  ahead ;  and 
when  water  was  brought  he  baptized  the  family  and  sent 
them  on  their  way  rejoicing ;  and  he  would  gladly  have  bap- 


192  EARLY  PIONEEBS  AND  EVENTS. 

tized  the  whole  car-load  if  they  had  been  fit  subjects  for 
baptism. 

There  are  few  ministers,  if  any,  that  have  lived  in  the 
last  century  that  can  show  such  a  record  of  long  and  faith- 
ful service  in  the  Christian  faith ;  and  for  many  long  years 
will  his  noble  deeds  and  sacrifices  be  remembered  and  his 
sacred  memory  be  cherished  deep  down  in  the  hearts  of  a 
grateful  country  and  a  generous  people.  It  would  be  right 
and  proper  that  a  monument  should  be  erected  to  his  sacred 
memory,  the  same  as  has  been  done  over  the  grave  of  the 
noble  Lincoln. 


MY   AUTOBIOGRAPHY  BRIEFLY  SKETCHED. 


MY  ANCESTORS,    THE   ROSS   AND   LEE    FAMILIES. THEIR   DE- 
SCENDANTS AND   SOME   OF   THEIR  DEEDS. THE    JOURNEY 

OF  MY  FAMILY  FROM  NEW  YORK  TO  ILLINOIS. SOME  OF 

MY  EA.RLY     PERSONAL    ADVENTURES. MY     MARRIAGE     TO 

.TANE  R.  KIRKPATRICK,  JANUARY  1ST,  1840. MY  PER- 
SONAL WORK  IN  THE  EARLY  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 
COUNTRY. THE  OFFICES  HELD  AND  MY  WORK  AS  A  DEL- 
EGATE TO  THE  NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  CONVENTION  IN 

THE  YEAR  1884. THE  SIXTY  YEARS  OF  MY  MEMBERSHIP 

IN  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 

In  closing  my  pioneer  history  of  Fulton  county,  I 
thought  that  it  would  be  proper  and  right  for  me  to  give  a 
short  biographical  sketch  of  my  own  life  and  also  of  some 
of  my  ancestors,  as  some  of  my  children  and  grandchildren 
and  great-grandchildren  might  have  the  curiosity  to  know 
something  about  their  genealogy,  and  where  their  ancestors 
came  from,  and  I  will  therefore  give  such  genealogy  as  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  trace  it  back  to  the  Ross  and  the  Lee 
families. 

My  great-grandfather,  Zebulon  Ross,  came  from  Scot- 
land to  America,  and  settled  in  Dutchess  county,  New  York, 
in  the  year  1728,  and  died  in  the  same  county  at  the  age  of 
ninety  years.  He  had  a  son,  Joseph  Ross,  who  was  mar- 
ried to  Abigail  Lee,  a  daughter  of  Thomas  Lee.  Thomas 
Lee  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  it  was 
after  him  that  the  Lee  part  of  my  name  was  given  me, 
which  is  Harvey  Lee  Ross. 

My  grandmother,  Abigail  Lee  Ross,  came  to  Illinois 
in  1824,  and  died  at  my  father's  house  in  Havana,  Illinois, 
in  1834.  T  have  often  heard  her  tell  of  her  father,  Thomas 
Lee,  being  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Thomas 
Lee's  ancestors  came  from  England  to  America  about  the 

193 


194  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  There  were  two 
branches  of  the  Lee  family,  one  of  which  branches  settled 
in  the  state  of  New  York  and  the  other  in  the  state  of  Vir- 
ginia. Both  branches  came  from  the  same  original  stock. 
Their  ancestors  had  held  positions  of  honor  and  trust  in 
the  old  country,  and  some  of  those  who  settled  in  New 
York  and  Virginia  occupied  prominent  places  in  the  col- 
onial history  of  America,  in  the  state  legislatures,  and  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation.  Joshua  Lee,  brother  of  Thomas 
Lee,  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  New  York  State 
Senate.  One  of  the  Virginia  branch,  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
drew  up  and  submitted  to  Congress  the  resolution  of  June 
7th,  1776,  declaring  that  the  United  Colonies  of  America 
are  and  ought  to  be  free  and  independent  states ;  that  they 
absolved  themselves  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British 
Crown,  and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and 
Great  Britain  is  and  ought  to  be  totally  absolved,  which 
resolution  was  adopted  by  the  Continental  Congress.  Both 
Richard  Henry  Lee  and  his  brother,  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee, 
were  members  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  signers  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Thomas  Lee,  the  father  of  Abigail  Lee,  was  born  in 
Fishkill,  New  York,  November  15th,  1739,  and  died  at 
Penn  Yan,  New  York,  January  22nd,  1814.  His  wife, 
Mattie  Sherman,  was  born  in  1743,  and  died  October  14th, 
1833. 

Thomas  Lee  and  Mattie  Sherman  were  married  in  1760, 
and  had  ten  children.  Their  oldest  daughter,  Abigail  Lee, 
was  born  in  1760,  and  married  Joseph  Ross. 

Joseph  Ross  and  Abigail  Lee  had  born  to  them  the  fol- 
lowing children  :  Joseph,  Ossian  M., Matthias,  Thomas  L., 
John  N.,  Eliza,  Maria  and  Sallie. 

Ossian  M.  Ross  Avas  born  in  Dutchess  county,  New  York, 
August  16th,  1790,  and  died  at  Havana,  Illinois,  in  1837. 
His  wife,  Mary  "\Vinans,  was  born  in  New  Jersey,  April 
1st,  1793,  and'died  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  in  1875.  Ossian 
M.  Ross  and  Mary  Winans  were  married  in  Seneca  county, 
Now  York,  July  7th,  1811.  There  was  born  to  them  the 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  AUTHOR.  195 

following  children :  Lewis  W.,  Harriet  M.,  Harvey  Lee, 
Leonard  F.,  Lucinda  C.  and  Pike  C.  Ross. 

The  services  of  Thomas  Lee  in  assisting  in  the  establish- 
ment of  American  independence  during  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  were  as  follows :  He  was  second  lieutenant  of 
Captain  Jack  Rosekrance's  company,  Col.  Jack  Holmes, 
fourth  regiment.  New  York  Continental  line,  28th  of 
June,  1775 ;  promoted  first  lieutenant,  August  3rd,  1775. 
He  was  captain  of  the  eighth  company,  fifth  regiment,  New 
York  Continental  line,  commanded  by  Col.  Louis  Du  Bois, 
November  21st,  1776';  resigned  May  19th,  1778.  He  was 
also  captain  in  Col.  Zepharriah  Platt's  regiment  of  New 
York  Associated  Exempts,  October  19th,  1779.  He  was 
also  captain  in  Col.  Louis  Du  Bois'  regiment  of  New 
York  militia,  July  1st,  1780.  (References,  pages  140, 
231,  257,  285  and  529  of  Vol.  1,  "New  York  in 
the  Revolution,"  or  Vol.  15  of  the  published  "  Docu- 
ments Relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of  New 
York,"  published  by  Reed,  Parsons  &  Co.,  Albany,  New 
York,  1887.  Also  "page  261  of  "  Heitman's  Register  of 
Officers  of  the  Continental  Army,"  published  by  H.  B. 
Heitman,  at  Washington,  D.  C.)  Captain  Thomas  Lee's 
services  in  the  Continental  army  were  equivalent  to  ser- 
vice in  the  regular  army  of  to-day. 

In  regard  to  my  own  life,  I  will  say  that  I  was  born  in 
Seneca  county,  New  York,  October  10th,  1817,  and  came 
with  my  parents  to  what  is  now  known  as  Fulton  county, 
Illinois,  in  1821.  We  came  down  the  Ohio  river  and  up  the 
Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers  in  a  keel  boat.  The  country 
at  that  time  was  a  vast  wilderness,  inhabited  only  by 
Indians  and  abounding  with  wild  animals.  It  was  several 
years  after  we  came  to  Illinois  before  the  country  became 
sufficiently  settled  to  establish  schools,  and  I  had  little 
opportunity  in  the  years  of  my  youth  to  obtain  an  education. 
What  education  I  did  get  was  obtained  at  the  little  log 
schoolhouses,  though  in  1836,  when  I  was  nineteen  years  of 
age,  my  father  sent  me  to  Illinois  College,  at  Jacksonville, 
Illinois.  I  had  attended  college  scarcely  a  year  when  my 
father  died.  He  had  been  engaged  in  extensive  business 


196  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND   EVENTS. 

enterprises,  and  in  consequence  of  his  death  I  was  obliged  to 
leave  school  and  come  home  and  take  charge  of  my  mother's 
business,  which  put  an  end  to  my  college  life.  When  I 
entered  Illinois  College  I  took  in  with  me  as  college  chum, 
William  II.  Heriidon,  who  for  many  years  was  the  law 
partner  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  who  was  the  author  of  the 
book  entitled  "  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  W.  H.  Hern- 
don."  I  have  had  something  to  say  of  this  book  in  my 
sketch  of  the  early  life  of  Lincoln. 

My  father  was  engaged  for  many  years  in  farming,  and 
in  the  mercantile  business,  and  in  trading  with  the  Indians, 
and  the  early  part  of  my  life  was  spent  on  the  farm,  in  the 
store,  and  in  trading  with  the  Indians.  I  would  often 
take  long  trips  into  the  country,  far  away  from  any  white 
neighbors,  in  company  with  Indian  traders,  whom  my 
father  kept  employed,  and  I  then  learned  to  speak  the 
Indian  language  quite  well.  I  at  a  very  early  age  learned 
the  use  of  firearms,  and  was  very  often  out  hunting  and 
trapping,  as  the  country  in  those  times  abounded  in  wild 
game.  Great  droves  of  deer  and  large  flocks  of  wild  tur- 
keys could  be  found  everywhere.  I  have  shot  wild  turkeys 
when  but  seven  years  of  age,  and  have  killed  deer  when 
twelve  years  old.  I  can  remember  catching  eight  wolves  in 
steel  traps  set  around  the  carcass  of  one  dead  horse,  when  I 
was  but  twelve  years  of  age.  In  1832,  when  I  was  fifteen 
years  of  age,  I  carried  the  mail  on  horseback,  once  a  week, 
from  Springfield  to  Monmouth,  Illinois,  the  distance  being 
about  135  miles.  I  frequently  had  to  swim  my  horse  over 
streams  of  water  three  or  four  times  a  day,  there  being  no 
bridges,  with  the  mailbag  strapped  across  my  shoulders  to 
keep  the  mail  from  getting  wet.  I  will  mention  one  of  my 
adventures.  I  was  traveling  from  Monmouth  to  Knox- 
ville,  the  distance  being  twenty  miles,  and  not  a  house  was 
there  between  the  two  villages.  A  dark  and  rainy  night 
came  on,  when  I  was  ten  miles  from  Knoxville,  and  when  I 
had  reached  the  place  where  the  city  of  Galesburg  now 
stands  the  grass  was  very  high  in  the  road,  and  all  of  a  sud- 
den I  heard  a  hungry  pack  of  wolves  set  up  a  tremendous 
howling  right  behind  my  horse,  and  from  the  noise 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  AUTHOR.  197 

they  made  I  supposed  that  the  whole  country  was  alive 
with  wolves,  so  I  applied  the  whip  to  my  horse,  and  was  not 
long  in  getting  to  Knoxville,  and  I  probably  made  as  good 
time  on  horseback  as  the  railroad  trains  are  making  at  the 
present  time.  In  the  year  1833,  when  I  was  sixteen  years 
of  age,  I  took  a  trip  from  Havana,  in  Mason  county,  Illi- 
nois, to  what  was  called  the  "  Lead  Mine  Country  "  in  the 
northwestern  part  of  Illinois,  a  distance  of  about  225  miles. 
The  greater  part  of  the  road  ran  through  an  unbroken 
wilderness.  In  many  places  the  white  settlers  were  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-five  miles  apart.  There  were  many  deep 
and  dangerous  streams  of  water  to  cross,  and  it  was  cer- 
tainly a  long  and  dangerous  trip  for  a  boy  to  take  alone 
and  on  horseback.  I  found  many  Indians  on  the  road,  and 
sometimes  stayed  with  them  over  night,  and  always  found 
them  kind  and  friendly.  The  cause  of  my  taking  the 
trip  at  that  time  was  this:  My  uncle,  Joseph  Ross,  had 
some  three  years  before  gone  to  the  lead  mines,  taking  with 
him  his  only  child,  my  cousin  Ossian,  a  boy  about  five  years 
of  age.  My  uncle  was  taken  sick  and  died,  leaving  this  boy 
with  strangers,  and  no  one  to  look  after  him,  and  so  I  went 
there  and  brought  him  home  with  me.  He  at  the  time  of 
this  trip  was  only  eight  years  of  age.  I  was  some  twenty 
days  in  making  the  trip,  and  we  got  home  all  in  good  shape. 
One  of  the  first  business  enterprises  I  engaged  in  after  I 
became  of  age  was  to  purchase  an  interest  in  a  steamboat, 
called  the  Navigator,  which  ran  from  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 
to  La  Salle  on  the  Illinois  river.  I  held  the  position  on 
her  of  steamboat  clerk.  After  running  on  her  for  a  year,  I 
sold  out  my  interest,  and  then  took  a  wife.  I  was  married 
on  the  1st  day  of  January,  1840,  to  Jane  R.  Kirkpatrick 
at  Canton,  Illinois.  Upon  our  marriage  we  went  to 
Havana,  Illinois,  ~  and  there  kept  the  Havana  Hotel,  and 
also  the  ferry  across  the  Illinois  river,  and  we  engaged  in 
farming  and  stockraising.  I  was  later  appointed  post- 
master at  Havana,  Illinois,  by  President  Martin  Van 
Buren.  In  1844  I  removed  to  and  settled  on  a  farm  of 
forty  acres  adjoining  the  town  of  Vermont  in  Fulton 
countv,  Illinois,  and  as  I  had  never  learned  a  trade,  nor 

«/  7  t 


198  EARLY  PIONEERS  AND  EVENTS. 

studied  for  any  profession,  I  had  to  rely  on  my  hands  and 
head  for  a  living  in  the  world.  I  settled  down  on  my  lit- 
tle farm  and  went  to  work,  and  planted  out  a  fine  orchard, 
which  in  after  years  yielded  me  from  eight  to  ten  thousand 
bushels  of  fruit  a  year.  I  added  to  my  little  farm  from 
time  to  time,  until  I  had  a  farm  of  400  acres,  all  well  im- 
proved. I  also  engaged  in  buying  lands  and  improving 
them,  and  selling  them  to  such  emigrants  as  came  to  the 
country  and  wished  to  purchase  improved  farms.  I  con- 
tinued in  that  business  until  I  had  became  the  purchaser 
and  had  disposed  of  six  farms  in  Fulton  county  and  four- 
teen farms  in  McDonough  county,  Illinois,  and  those  farms 
are  at  the  present  time  among  the  very  best  in  those 
two  counties.  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  I  have 
had  a  greater  number  of  acres  of  land  broken  up  and  put 
in  cultivation  than  any  other  man  that  has  ever  lived  in 
McDonough  county.  I  only  mention  these  facts  to  show 
that  I  have  not  been  an  idler  or  drone  in  the  great  hive  of 
human  progress,  but  have  taken  some  part  in  helping  to  de- 
velop the  great  resources  of  the  country. 

My  principal  occupation  through  life  has  been  that  of  a 
farmer,  although  I  engaged  in  the  mercantile  business  in 
connection  with  my  farming  operations  for  about  ten  years. 
I  have  never  been  an  office  seeker,  and  have  had  but  little 
desire  to  hold  office,  although  I  have  held  a  few  small  offices. 
I  have  held  the  office  of  town  councilman,  town  treasurer, 
supervisor,  justice  of  the  peace  and  postmaster.  I  was 
twice  elected  treasurer  and  director  of  a  railroad.  I  have 
usually  voted  the  Democratic  ticket,  but  when  I  came  to 
California,  in  1881,  I  attended  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention, and  found  that  a  large  majority  of  the  delegates 
to  the  convention  were  saloonkeepers  and  wholesale  liquor 
dealers,  and  that  the  prominent  questions  which  came 
before  the  convention  were  the  repeal  of  the  Sunday  law, 
which  was  then  the  law  of  the  state  of  California,  and  the 
enactment  of  laws  in  the  interests  of  liquor  dealers,  so  I 
left  the  Democratic  party  and  joined  the  Prohibition  party. 
And  at  the  State  Prohibition  Convention,  in  1884,  I  was 
selected  as  a  delegate  to  the  National  Prohibition  Conven- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  AUTHOR.  199 

tion  that  was  held  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh  in  1884,  at 
which  convention  the  Hon.  John  P.  St.  John  was  nom- 
inated for  president.  At  that  convention  twenty-eight 
states  and  three  territories  were  represented  by  465  dele- 
gates. It  was  at  this  convention  that  I  first  had  the  oppor- 
tunity and  the  pleasure  of  seeing  and  hearing  that  grand 
and  noble  lady,  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard.  She  placed  in 
nomination  for  president  John  P.  St.  John,  and  on  that 
occasion  she  made  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  powerful 
speeches  that  was  heard  during  the  convention.  I  felt  a 
little  honored  in  being  chosen  with  her  on  the  committee 
that  drafted  the  platform  and  resolutions  which  were 
unanimously  adopted  by  the  convention.  I  have  been  a 
member  of  some  temperance  organization  for  over  half  a 
century.  I  have  never  indulged  in  the  use  of  liquor  nor 
tobacco  in  any  form,  and  during  the  more  than  eighty  years 
of  my  life  I  do  not  think  that  I  ever  had  to  exceed  more 
than  five  days  of  sickness,  and  I  attribute  my  good  health 
and  length  of  years  very  materially  to  abstaining  from  the 
use  of  liquor  and  tobacco.  My  wife  and  I  lived  together 
lacking  but  three  days  of  fifty-eight  years.  There  were 
born  to  us  six  children,  four  sons  and  two  daughters.  Our 
first  child,  Ossian,  died  when  eighteen  months  old.  All  my 
other  children  are  married  and  have  families.  They  are 
Harriet  S.  Hall,  Frank  W.  Boss,  Mary  F.  Childs,  George 
C.  Ross  and  Joseph  L,  Ross.  I  have  twelve  grandchildren 
and  four  great-grandchildren.  I  have  been  a  member  of 
the  Presbyterian  church  for  sixtyyears.  Iwas  convertedun- 
der  the  preaching  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  Nelson,  at  a  Pres- 
byterian campmeeting  held  near  the  town  of  Canton,  Illi- 
nois, in  1838.  I  first  joined  the  Presbyterian  church,  at 
Canton,  Illinois,  in  1838.  I  have  been  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  at  Vermont,  Illinois,  and  also  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  at  Macomb,  Illinois.  I  held  the 
office  of  presiding  elder  in  each  of  those  churches,  and  have 
represented  each  of  them  in  presbytery.  I  am  at  the  pres- 
ent time  a  member  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of 
Oakland,  California,  which  has  a  membership  of  over 
thirteen  hundred. 

Enfc. 


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